Is Joe Wurzelbacher related to Charles Keating — and does it matter?
Scroll for update…Eisenstadt is a hoaxer…
That’s been the left-wing blogger obsession all day. It started with a post from GOP blogger Martin Eisenstadt, who says that Joe Wurzelbacher the Plumber is a “close relative” of Robert Wurzelbacher, who is the son-in-law of Charles Keating. Robert Wurzelbacher served time for his role in the Keating 5 S&L scandal, gave a lot of money to Republicans, and is retired in Cincinnati. There is still no clear indication how exactly they are related and what “close” means.
I asked a reporter on scene in Ohio to check on the claim. He told me that Wurzelbacher was asked this morning at an impromptu press conference outside his house whether he’s related to Keating, and the reporter said Wurzelbacher answered that he didn’t know anything about that. I’ve asked the reporter to follow up and ask specifically if Wurzelbacher is related to Robert Wurzelbacher. Still waiting to hear back.
FYI, there is no mention of the issue in this NYTimes piece published at 1:30pm Eastern. Several left-wing blogs have also erroneously misidentifed a totally separate and unrelated “Joe Wurzelbacher” in Cincinnati as Joe the Plumber — and quietly backtracked after wetting their pants over that find.
The Keating connection claim has sent the left into conspiratorial frenzy. Joe is a plant! Joe is a liar! Joe is a [profanity] member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy programmed by John McCain!
Insane.
Obama dropped in on Wurzelbacher’s neighborhood, not vice versa. And there are plenty of “close relatives” in families who have nothing to do with each other, do not speak to each other, and stay away from each other’s politics and business.
But Team Obama will grasp at any straw to bring this guy down. I’ll have more on Joe The Plumber Derangement Syndrome in my syndicated column tomorrow.
***
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Update: Well, this explains the Keating/Wurzelbacher hoax. The person who spread the rumor is a hoaxer.
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- P.J.D.S.? What will the left think up next? « Trust, But Verify
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- Now Connections Matter? | The American Pundit
- Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread
- If you can’t argue the facts - attack the messenger | Conservative247
- JammieWearingFool
- Sister Toldjah
- Going after Joe the Plumber & America | The Anchoress
- Joe the Plumber | BitsBlog
- Hot Air » Blog Archive » What we can learn from the Joe the Plumber episode
- Indiepundit
- Health Care BS - VOTER SURVEYS, LEFTY SMUGNESS & JOE
- Joe The Plumber Scares Them « Mcnorman’s Weblog
- McCain’s New Joe the Plumber Ad Calls Obama’s “Tax Cuts” for Non-Taxpayers Welfare | Right Voices
- Webloggin » Life Under Obama - Public Persecution of Joe The Plumber as Seen in Real Time
- GayPatriot » Joe the Plumber Learns What It’s Like to be a Gay Republican
- Joe the Plumber Derangement Syndrome « NObama - Not Now, Not Ever
- Joe the Guy that asked a question and started a debate | Fightin Bob
- Martin Eisenstadt’s Blog » Blog Archive » Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher related to Charles “the Crook” Keating. Oops.
- links for 2008-10-17 | FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- It’s Official; JTPDS Has Arrived « Beltway Snark
- William K. Wolfrum Chronicles » Blog Archive » Why is it so hard to Google the name “Martin Eisenstadt” before going on a Plumber Joe freakfest?
- miamipress.net | miamipress.net
- Jules Crittenden » An Army of Joes
- Killing the messenger: Out for Joe’s blood « WitSnapper | The Blog
- Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher related to Charles “the Crook” Keating. Oops. « Watching Obama
- This Week’s Links | Business Pundit
- Martin Eisenstadt’s Blog » Blog Archive » Updates on the Joe the Plumber story
- I am Joe the Plumber « lumpenscholar
- Is Joe Wurzelbacher related to Charles Keating — and does it matter? « Top Daily Digest Reading
- All Spin Zone » Joe the Almost Average To Play War Correspondent
- Direct Help from Business Developers » This Week’s Links
- PITIFUL & AWFUL: LIBERAL MEDIA BOILS “JOE THE PLUMBER,” BUT IS DEAF/DUMB/BLIND ABOUT OBAMA – suzyrice.com/BIRD
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So what if he is related?
The point is?
What loser pansies when faced with the truth.
Well the dems should know all about “Plants”
I refuse to go there.
They are completely missing the point and it is hilarious. To keep the topic lively, I offer a classic IowaHawk tale…http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/
They cannot destroy Joe the plumber because he is everyone of us. We are all Joe the plumber and his basic question of Obama remains; “Do other people have a right to my personal property?”
And if Joe does in fact have a lien on his property, I believe he will become even more sympathetic to the average American. Who doesn’t fear losing their home or property due to an inability to pay exorbitant taxes?
Joe the plumber is about to be completely destroyed by the left for asking a simple question.
Joe the plumber is about to be completely destroyed by the left for asking a simple question.
I don’t care who he is. The story is Obama wants to take our money and spread it around. If Joe is a plant then Obama still shows his stupidity by being unable to answer even one ‘hostile’ question.
I’ve been married twice and have children from a first marriage. The same goes for my current husband. Between us we have relatives that we don’t even know about on both sides of the family. Lord help us if there is someone with a shady past out there that we are “related” to if either one of us is thrust in the public eye.
So No-bama’s relationship to Bill Ayer’s is irrelevant but Joe’s possible connection to Paul Keating is relevant?
I have just about had all I can take of the leftist media and its supporters, liberals and their malcontents who support them. I am about to simply tell anyone who is not of my ilk to go to Hades and help them on their way if necessary. This is getting sickening. I never thought I would have such feelings.
Quiet you or you are next!!!
/jack booted obama thug mode off.
Barry still gave the answer to his question doesn’t matter who’s asking it same answer I’m going to take from you and give it to someone else.Case closed!!!!
Again, so what if he is. What matters is what Obama replied about ’spreading the wealth around’. This rest of this is just a smoke screen.
Well tyrfing, fortunatly he did answer it and he got exposed for doing so. A totally unguarded moment caught by ABC of all things. The plant thing is pretty funny since it was Obama’s campaign stop on a neighborhood street. Too bad for Obama it was Joe’s neighborhood.
The only advice I can give to Joe Wurzelbacher comes from another famous Joe in history. General Joe “Vinegar” Stillwell was famous for the use of the Latin phrase “Illegitimi non carborundum” translation “Don’t let the bastards grind you down”. The unhinged left just keeps throwing crap up against the wall to see what will stick. These guys act like more flying monkeys fling their own pooh instead of attack dogs.
Welcome to the United Socialist States of America! We’re boned!
If he can’t handle one honest question from Joe sixpack, imagine what four years of questions will do to Obama.
Is he going to have a scripted Presidency too?
Joe has done more in the last few weeks to bring American’s, who don’t want big brother in our lives, than anyone since this gosh long election cycle, besides Sarah. I hope Joe is related to me, I have his same mind-set. Go McCain/Sarah/Joe. God Bless our Republic.
L
It was Obama’s words, not Joe’s that is the issue. The left just glosses over that.
Misdirection, obfuscation, prevarication….all liberal traits we can rely on that moves them to their ultimate goal…domination.
I see I see, disloyal words, a lack of obama love, pro-GOP thoughts, you are now on our list!!!
DNC thug badge number a2356
I know exactly what you mean. The loathing and hatred I feel for anyone I see with an Obama bumper sticker or yard sign is completely irrational, yet I’ve given up trying to suppress it.
PDS:
Plumber Derangement Syndrome
This country is dangerously divided. My wife works with a woman from Bosnia who is seeing this and looking at leaving because she has seen this before.
‘Can I just respond to that?’
‘Look.’
‘I think the real question here is…’
‘Let me be clear…’
When someone starts this way, it means they’re fixin’ to lie to ya!
Yes it matters. Surely the McCain campaign would not be THIS dumb!
***BREAKING NEWS FOR THE DAILY KOS***
I am a 4th cousin to Ted Kennedy, a close in-law of mine died five years of a brain tumor, and I must call a plumber as the drain pipe for our kitchen sink today sprung a leak.
There must be a conspiracy in there somewhere. Please, Daily Kos, check it out; you’re my only hope.
(I accidently posted the above in the related posted on MM’s site today when I intended to post it here. Boy, am I confused.)
sonofdy
I would hope it would never get that far….. but I know in my heart I would be on the true side of of the United States and doing my best to defend MY Constitution.
Remember it was Michelle O who first brought the sacrifice issue up (unless I’m mistaken).
Here is her famous “our souls are broken” speech:
We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another — that we cannot measure the greatness of our society by the strongest and richest of us, but we have to measure our greatness by the least of these. That we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done.
That is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.
I know. But I see it coming. Anyone who has studied history can see the trends.
Barak Obama is going to fix our SOULS???
On October 16th, 2008 at 5:44 pm, sonofdy said:
That is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.
Barak Obama is going to fix our SOULS???
Joe the Plumber has a tax lien on his modest house?
Wake me up when
he asks us todemands that we taxpayers cover his lien, in the same manner that Acorn and Acorn’s constituents demand we bail them out, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, when their homes are foreclosed on.Spread the wealth around, people!
It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just policy differences. It’s not, though. It’s t-shirts that call perfectly normal reasonable women c***s, it’s movies/books about killing a president you don’t like, it’s digging up dirt on a normal working guy who had the hubris to ask a question, it’s screeds written by people with the intellect of a 12-year old in Rolling Stone, it’s entertainers saying that someone can’t go to NYC cuz they’ll be gang-raped by her “big black brothers”, it’s being called racist every day cuz you think the half-black guy’s head is way up his ass on policy, it’s being told that we’re gonna have a race war if the half-black guy doesn’t win simply for being half-black, it’s being called “homophobe” and “woman-hater” constantly, it’s being lectured on being energy independence by the very people who KEEP us from being energy-independent, etc etc etc and on and on…
I just can’t take it anymore. I’m not a leader, but if some new William Wallace rose up out there somewhere, I’d follow him.
Buy Danish
nail.head.
Joe “The Plumber” is as fraudulent as the rest of you people.
The guys doesn’t pay his taxes
The guy doesn’t have a plumbers license
They guy won’t endorse McCain
The guy isn’t trying to purchase his company
This guy is full of it
He’s sorta, kind of, remotely, possibly, most likely related. Just like he was sorta not registered to vote.
It doesn’t matter if he was related to Mickey Mouse, all that matters is what Obama said to him. Spread the wealth, baby!
I don’t think he’ll need it if he gets into office. (Trojan horse)
The point is not who Joe is, it’s what Obama said. You didn’t pay attention.
WhyTF do you come here?
Back taxes? Wow, no one else in the country ever had that.
Ohio doesn’t require plumbers to be licensed.
Ever heard of a secret ballot?
HowTF do you know?
Go hang out and DU or Kos.
mattymatt
I’d be willing to be that William Wallace but I’m an American of Irish descent…. my hero is Michael Collins….. and his own kind put a bullet in his head.
I have Obama supporters in my neighborhood that are THAT virulent sad to say
Apparently the lovely, kind-hearted kids over at DU have published Joe’s phone number and address.
And here is the left to try to complete Joes destruction for the horriable crime of asking the “ONE” a simple question. Ilovemycountry, you can kiss my a$$. You and your Obama thugs may have fooled alot of americans, but you and your fellow facists dont fool me.
So you’re saying that because Joe isn’t a licensed plumber, BO didn’t say he wanted to spread the wealth?
Hmmm…
Sounds sorta like a former CBS anchor. Fake, but accurate.
Hey love, I’d think that’s the sort of profile the looney left would embrace.
‘you people’??! ‘YOU PEOPLE’?!! (loooong intake of breath….)ssssssssssssssssssssssssRAAAAAAACIST!!!!!!!!!
oh, and I forgot to mention…
ALBA GO BRAGH!!
These lefties belong in a rubber room.
So where is your demand for Rangle to step down????
Waiting.
I see I’m not suffering this feeling alone. I hate the way I feel, but I just can’t stop it. I can’t wait until this election is over and maybe I can start to get past it. Although I guess it depends on the winner.
What country do you love? Iran? Cuba? China? Venezuela?
Obviously not the United States of America.
LOL. I’ve been wanting to ask that question myself.
I love the smell of desperation in the afternoon!! Proof positive that Joe The Plumber has scored some big time points for the McCain campaign by outing Obama as the socialist he truly is.
Joe the Plumber=Divine Providence
Writhe, Liberals, Writhe!
I know that McCain has said he won’t go after Barry and Rev. Wright, but there is one thing someone needs to call The One on:
Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness.”
He is campaigning as a champion of the middle class, and claims he wants to give people who wannabe Joe the Middle class Plumber a leg up by taking Joe the Business Owner’s money and recycling it backwards to original Joe as he was climbing up the middle class ladder.
But his church taught him for 20 years that pursuing “middleclassness” is practically a sin.
You’ve got some splainin’ to do, Barry.
Um, if BHO does (big gulp) win, will he provide universal mental health care for those of us that suffer some type of disorder based on “electoral expectation letdown?”
Irish over here too, MNUSMCDavid. Although I don’t who Michael Collins is. Right off to Google with me.
JTPDS strikes!!! Joe has unpaid taxes, Joe beat his wife. Joe probably called his wife a ****.
There is no low, the left will go, to discredit anyone not in their orbit.
Chicago thug politics gone wild.
As usual, a lefty trying to obfuscate the point. It does not matter WHO Joe the Plumber is, what matters is Obama’s words to him, his policies, and his stance on taxes and redistribution of wealth. Remember, Obama was in Joe’s neighborhood, Joe didn’t opt to go to one of the anointed one’s rallies. Obama stepped in it bigtime and the left can’t throw out enough trash to cloud the issues.
Was thinking about this on my way to class tonight.
What does it matter who Joe the Plumber is, more than it matters what he represents?
And – more important – Barack Obama’s answer to Joe’s question?
Joe represents people who work hard, who want to reap the benefits of the work they put in.
Obama stands in opposition to that. His answer made it explicitly clear that Joe’s success needs to be “spread around” because, darn it, Joe just worked harder than the next guy.
Don’t believe me? Scott Adams – the man behind Dilbert – said the same thing, and he’s hardly a “right-winger”:
So what does it matter of Joe’s a plumber, a stock broker, an inventor? The principle is the same:
OBAMA punishes success and rewards laziness.
my thoughts exactly. we should loot, plunder, and pillage.
I AM JOE THE PLUMBER
Anyone see a bumper sticker here?
Again, I must remind… Please do not use a cell phone while wearing a tin foil hat.
Don’t worry, he’s a plumber. He’s used to being up to his elbows in s^&t.
Shut up white boy, and buy me a replacement for my 60″ big screen TV.
I am Joe, hear me roar…LOLOL
You racist you. : )
because these morons don’t realize, or don’t care, that it’s not the questioner that’s important – IT’S THE ANSWERER, STUPID. Just like, it wasn’t the question posed by Rick Warren, it was Obama’s stupid freakin’ “that’s above my pay-grade” answer. MAN, their candidates are accountable for nothin’!!!
BING-O!
How could he be a plant? He walked down his street and Obama answered his question.
My soul was not broken until the last few months. I have been shattered by the hate I feel for the people doing this to my country. I’ve always been a live and let live kind of person but lately, I DON’T FEEL THAT WAY.
I find my mouth full of bad words that want to come out, my pulse races when I read the news and I’m ready for it to end.
Spread the wealth – Give Me A Break.
Is Joe Wurzelbacher related to Charles Keating — and does it matter?
Answer – Lawyers like Barry should know they need to be careful about opening doors. Like this:
Barack Obama has a half-brother named George who lives in a hut in Kenya.
Shall we go there, Barry?
And just for fun, remember -
Barack Obama is related to Dick Cheney, and Sarah Palin is related to Princess Di.
.
Somebody, anybody, please just stop the madness !!.
I AM GEORGE OBAMA
Obama/Biden making fun of Joe the Plumber is just going to add to the “bitter-clinging” thing. Obama’s eliteness is showing again.
Note to Obama: I’m already paying more in local taxes than I should be and I’ll not pay one penny more in federal tax to support “spreading the wealth”! USE YOUR OWN MONEY TO SPREAD THE WEALTH!
Joe is his middle name?! That’s it, I’m voting for Obama, it’s Bush/Cheney/Rove/Halliburton/Blackwater all over again. Give me a guy with a real middle name like Robinette!
This is proof positive that liberals are completely aware of Obama’s socialist, communist tendencies and they don’t give a flying hoot about them. Not a one has expressed any shock over his “spread the wealth” statement. Instead, and right on cue they go after JTP for asking a question which happened to reveal and confirm what conservatives have known about Obama all along. But this is politics and no one is off limits; not Trig and certainly not a man who asked “The One” a simple question. Congratulations libs – you’ve really outdone yourselves.
The arrogance was also evident from his smug look and smirky chuckles as McCain called him out on his many issues on Wednesday night.
Joe Biden said:
“John [McCain] continues to cling to the notion of this guy Joe the plumber,” Biden said on NBC’s “Today” show. “I don’t have any Joe the plumbers in my neighborhood that make $250,000 a year.”
We cling to our guns, Bibles, and… Joe the Plumber.
Great job, Joe Biden! Is Hillary paying you to say these stupid, self-destructive things?
I hope people get the reference to the “shut up white boy” lady with the giant TV.
More Joe Biden:
Keep up the good work, Joe! And may I say I look forward to a little class warfare which pits Joe the gas station owner against Joe the plumber. Maybe it could be turned into a reality show.
Just sounds like another vast right wing conspiracy cover-up. We know what you meant and I am left to conclude but one thing… you’re a raaaaaaacist.
I believe Obama and Cheney are distantly related. Palin is distantly related to the British Royal family, and I am descended from President John Adams. So what?
You know the answer to your question, don’t play stupid.
It makes it look like Joe Plumber (who isn’t a plumber) is not a grassroots guy but a piece of astroturf planted by Republican operatives.
Forget to take your meds, LGM? Plant or not, he didn’t make Obama answer the way he did. Obama did that.
Seagull sighted twelve O’clock high. Too close for missiles switching to guns!
Welcome to the United Socialist States of America! We’re boned!
lgm, I don’t care if he was a freakin billboard, your boy the commie done played himself… the cat be outta da bag! Now hope that he wins, because historically the purges of communists has not been pretty… and I for one can not wait.
For instance, like my Nail-polish-wearing uncle Bob who moved to Hawaii when I was 15 and I haven’t seen him since? Got it.
I have 30 first cousins on my mother’s side. I know one of them well enough to know how she’s voting, and I’m pretty disappointed in that one. The rest? Yo No Se.
On ‘The View’, when they asked Obama if he was related to Brad Pitt, didnt Obama say he was like a 6 or 7th cousin?
Are we playing “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” or what?
I seem to remember a music group, from the 70’s? who had included in their lyrics, the phrase “Share the land”
The were villified in the MSM and press, and yet nothing from the MSM about O.
“Spread the wealth around” is straight Marxian socialism, and the people need to know it…
Meantime the MSM, are just running 24/7 ads for O. Journalism is dead.
Kommisar Ombamski is to the right of Stalin and just to the left of Bejing, and maybe they’re just shuffling for a position in the new world order…
I’m thinking third overseer in charge of peoples rice farm no. 431, just south of the dallas mushroom collective…
Or would you rather be the mushroom? Need plenty of those too!
Well I know now that I cant ask Obama a direct question else I will be investigated and hounded into poverty.
This is America still right and not some third world dictatorship ?