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.
***
***
Update: Well, this explains the Keating/Wurzelbacher hoax. The person who spread the rumor is a hoaxer.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
 |
Ohio state snooper who targeted Joe the Plumber gets new government job
January 27, 2011 11:27 AM by Michelle Malkin
38 CommentsOhio taxpayers paying to defend government snoops
November 18, 2009 09:27 AM by Michelle Malkin
14 CommentsNot even a wrist slap for snoop who violated Joe the Plumber’s privacy
October 15, 2009 10:48 AM by Michelle Malkin
50 CommentsCrikey: Labor Secy nominee Solis’s husband finally pays up 16-year-old tax liens; Update: Senate session postponed
February 5, 2009 01:54 PM by Michelle Malkin
113 Comments
In defense of Joe
January 14, 2009 07:23 PM by Michelle Malkin
42 CommentsJTP in Sderot: “Do you think this is normal, the way you cover this conflict…?”
January 11, 2009 09:47 PM by Michelle Malkin
31 Comments
“Is that an airplane or a helicopter?”
January 11, 2009 11:51 AM by Michelle Malkin
38 CommentsWho’s afraid of Joe the Journalist?
January 9, 2009 08:38 AM by Michelle Malkin
199 CommentsJoe the Plumber heads to Israel
January 7, 2009 12:52 PM by Michelle Malkin
83 Comments
Categories: Joe The Plumber
Pundit & Pundette
» Bishop Jenky, Nicki Minaj, and the "98%"JustOneMinute
» We Hear From The Department Of Good Ideas And False ChoicesHot Air
» GOP budget leaders: The president’s fourth straight budget flop underscores need for reformPundit & Pundette
» Obama's war on conscience, cont'd
Now, in terms of the City of Toledo…the regs are not nearly as straightforward…and without knowing what sort of work Wurzelbacher does, or how he represents himself professionally (i.e., tradesman, journeyman, or apprentice), it is difficult to judge whether he is contravening existing laws.
All of which is, of course, beside the point.
I know…isn’t it delish?!??
The only thing sweeter than a McCain/Palin victory would be a McCain/Palin victory using a play right out of the Democrats’ playbook!
Why does anyone care what Joe does. He forced Obama to actually expose his agenda.
You can’t choose your relatives. You can choose whose racist church you sit in for 20 years, and which domestic terrorist you choose to hang with.
Besides, I thought associations didn’t matter. I guess what they really mean is Obama’s associations don’t matter, but eveyone else’s is fair game.
FamilyMan said:
lgm said: Nothing.
The thing you don’t understand sport, is that the messenger may not be perfect but he did expose your idol.
FM, don’t get so personally/emotionally connected… these are not people that you can box with… or reason with for that matter. You might as well be cursing out the program that asks you to press 1 for English, LOL. It is just software… maybe it has a body, maybe it lives in a chip, whatever, but don’t joust with windmills, OK?
The Obamamedia attack dogs are making a huge mistake in attacking and trying to rip apart Joe Wurzelbacher. Not only do they further expose the death of journalism in this country by being in league with the anointed one, but they have at the same time declared open warfare on every working man and woman in America. Punishing an everyday American citizen for tripping up the anointed one with a legitimate question is very dangerous and could very well lose their messiah the election. To their declaration of war against all of us I say, “CRY HAVOC AND LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR!”
Welcome to the United Socialist States of America! We’re boned!
The bastards care because he forced Obama to tell the truth.
I mean, God forbid anyone yell ‘the Emperor has no clothes!’
Do you really, in all seriousness (should the rumors about “Joe” turn out to be true) not see the hypocrisy in deeming this relationship unimportant? If McCain were asked a question that may have been 1) asked purely to gather a soundbite to be used against him by the Obama campaign and 2) was asked by a possible Obama plant 3) who was related (even distantly) to, say, the Kennedy clan, can you tell me it wouldn’t matter — and that those who comment on this site wouldn’t be yelling about underhanded Democratic tricks and malfeasance? Even the most minimal appearance of impropriety on Obama’s part becomes fodder for days of useless chatter here. For a group that has made so much of even Obama’s most tenuous relationships — a group that seems to recognize a conspiracy in every Democratic move or word — I really find the flippant disregard for this situation truly amazing and the most obvious admission of complete hypocrisy.
I’ll give it a go but I’m so sick of idiots.
Or rather: ERIN GO BRAGH – LESS
You know, it takes a particularly twisted mind to provide a moral-equivalency argument to a [possible] Keating relative who asked Obama a perfectly legitimate question about taxes, and a friend of Obama’s who planted bombs and blew up buildings, and now says he wished he would have done more.
You’re one twisted mo-fo, nyk.
nyk wrote:
…and, I might add, proof of the blind, unquestioning, automaton-like allegiance to a candidate/party that you accuse Obama supporters of having.
DITTO!
Why even respond to the moron?
It takes a linear-minded simpleton like yourself, I suppose, to not see the parallels. The principle remains the same: If there were even the slightest suspicion that Obama had planted a colleague’s relative at a McCain rally, with the intent to obtain a favorable outcome for the Obama campaign, the outcry here would be deafening.
OK, yes but don’t let the idiots play you. Check this out, log on, say something inflammatory & bug out.
You can spend the rest of the day raising your BP, & writing an intellectual response to a sniper who is long gone… (I don’t say troll, I say sniper). lgm will never read your response, cause he is long gone, doing satan’s bidding elsewhere… the effort that you spend answering these errr, condoms could be better spent e-mailing your congress critters (for example)…OK?
Particularly when she has called you out on your collective, mind-blowing hypocrisy.
Brad Pitt is related to Obama, that has been established. That Bail-out gave tax credits to Actors, Producers, Screen Writers etc.
Obama caused the banking crisis to aid his family!
Hillary Clinton is cousin to Angelina Joline, that has been established.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Joline are “an item”.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton involved in incest—use public money!
I should be a writer for the New York Times!
nyk just exposed his bigotry by assuming we all want McCain or the Republicans. He needs a course in logic.
The left has a mindless ideology. Conservatives question all assumptions.
nyk Go teach in public schools. You may get away with those garbage arguments.
p.s… sorry brooklyn red. I can’t help my self
nyk, Joe asked a question about taxes. What’s wrong with that, no matter who he’s related to? How about focusing on the question, instead of who asked it? Who cares who asked it?
Or are you of the mind that any legitimate question is made automatically illegitimate when it’s asked of Obamessiah (“he who must not be challenged”)?
If the liberals want to play guilt by association I say bring it on!
Ayers, Rezko, Wright, Farrakhan, ACORN, Fannie, Freddie, Raines, Jim Johnson…where does it end?
I see your point, but at this time it’s speculation. Give it a little longer, I suspect within 2 days we’ll know more about JTP than we know about BHusseinO after 2 years.
FM, Well, nyk to his/her credit sticks around to answer… you may engage at will.
sniper/trolls take a pot shot and run off to oh, Idontknow, a nambala meeting or something… don’t waist your time on them.
Seriously nyk, you are normally better than this. “A soundbite to be used against him?” You mean because he answered truthfully it can be used against him? Or most Americans disagree with him so it can be used against him? Or Joe tricked him into saying something he didn’t believe, or….
Really any American should be able to ask any candidate anthing they want – and we get to judge them by their answer. Goes for Palin, goes for Obama.
All of this – silly as it already is – goes headfirst into tinfoil land (in the pike position for Katie Couric fans) when it ignores the fact that Obama showed up in this guy’s neighborhood and not the other way around. I like to think of it as paranoia and not lack of intelligence…
1. Charles Keating is not a seated US senator – so there goes “colleague’s relative”.
2. Joe asked a question of Obama who, unsolicited, walked up to Joe – so there goes the “at a McCain rally”. Matter of fact, there goes the whole OH MY GOD HE’S A PLANT theory.
What else have you got?
AlohaGuy re:
…Seriously nyk, you are normally better than this…
Can you smell the fear??
oh, and 1a. where is the proof that Keating and Joe are related?
But the crux of the matter is this – who cares to whom the man is related? He asked a legitimate question, Obama got caught flatfooted and looked pretty bad, and now the left is looking to tear the guy limb from limb.
It’s foul.
I don’t even care if he WAS a plant. He asked a good question, Obama answered it in exactly the way Obama wanted to, and now he hopes for a do-over because of some what…some what??
nyk, you need to call the waaaaahmbulance, stat!
nyk. If Catie Kuric asked the question of Joe, would you be looking into her background?
I truly don’t believe this (to be honest, I believe quite the opposite), but I believe it even less if the conservatives we’re discussing are the ones who comment on this blog.
There’s nothing wrong with asking questions of the candidates. It should be encouraged! But if this person is only “asking” questions to achieve a political end — if there is a questionable motive to their questions — if they may very well be affiliated with a particular campaign (and being a relative of a candidate’s associate(s) at the very least raises all those questions) then, of course people will be suspicious.
My point is, I simply do not believe, after having read this blog for so long, that were the situation reversed, that charges of “cheating” wouldn’t be leveled at Obama. It strikes me as
oddpredictable that a group that has had so much to say about associations and alliances doesn’t find this situation the slightest bit interesting (not to mention a group that is on a constant lookout for possible plants — at least, where their own candidate is concerned). If the tables were turned, there is no way those that comment here would so easily dismiss the situation out of hand.Comment by Paul (Lancaster,CA)
October 16th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I have a new reason to hate Obama. He got Joe the Plumber fired. No lie it’s on hot air. He reported him to Toledo plumber association. Liberals have sunk a new low!
Comment by OMGIAMGOINGNUTS – Cindie
October 16th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Greta,
Please look into this. The obama camp has made it where JOE THE PLUMBER can’t work. Is there some way we can help him?
It’s really goofy time. Their guy is up in the polls and they’re having a heart attack about him saying what he actually believes in front of a camera – and making up absurdly convoluted expalantions of the episode.
Even if McCain himself hired the guy from central casting, bought him a house in that neighborhood in anticipation of Obama’s arrival, told him what to ask and bribed an ABC cameraman to record it – the question is legitimate, and Obama choose to answer it, and answer it the way he did.
This is an asinine question.
The Obamiacs and his followers will stop at nothing to get what they want. If you make money, they will take it. If you speakout against them, they will try to destroy you. I can just vision a health care system under the left where if you have TWO good cornea’s and a gangbanger needs one, they will take one. A wino crackhead needs a kidney and you have TWO healthy ones give it up. They will say ” health is better when you spread it around”. Liberals are thieves, it’s that simple.
It looks like nyk may need some “DEPENDS”
WHY?
A couple days ago I jokingly posted that an attack was coming on Joe the Plumber. Little did I know how inhinged the left would become and now he is the main issue of the day, even one that could be appreciably hurt Obama. New prediction: by morning the line of attack will be What did McCain know and when did he know it?
Honestly. I’m frosted by this stupid issue. We’ve got possibly 200,000 fraudulent voter registrations in the state of Ohio alone. We’ve got Obama’s campaign race-baiting by fabricating, out of whole cloth, some alleged McCain supporter saying, “Kill Him”, which the Secret Service says is total bunk.
And nyk and his weenie pals crying about a possible planted, but perfectly legitimate, question of their candidate who’s gotten a total free pass at every turn. So, brooklynred, I don’t smell fear. What I smell is a loaded dirty nyk diaper, to whom I loudly scream, “Get over it, ya big baby!”
On October 16th, 2008 at 8:30 pm, FamilyMan said:
nyk said: This is an asinine question.
WHY?
Rabbid! You’re from CO as well? Where abouts, the People’s Republic of Boulder?
AlohaGuy said:
- the question is legitimate, and Obama choose to answer it, and answer it the way he did.
I can smell the fear… ummmmm, delicious.
nyk. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY!!!!!!!!!!!
nyk. WWWHHHHYYYY?
So you mean like Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson? Got it.
Dude, please…you’re killing me.
Every interviewer asks questions to achieve a political end. There is nothing wrong with that. The “political end” is an informed election, which is good news!
And I’m sorry I called you a weenie and a big baby. That was over the line.
nyk. Does it take you that long to answer a question.
You must not have a strong core value system.
He is a plumber, you pathetic moron.
vickisoup re:
Honestly. I’m frosted by this stupid issue. We’ve got possibly 200,000 fraudulent voter registrations in the state of Ohio alone.
Which we caught…
Do not doubt your countrymen, we are tens of millions God fearing strong, and we are not blind, nor stupid.
Using that criteria, I have to assume that you are “suspicious” of half the members of the MSM who have close connections to the Democratic Party.
Right?
You are right about all of that, vickisoup.
I do believe, though, that there is something to be said for intellectual consistency/honesty (one of the things I think is so lacking on the left). At the risk of invoking the wrath of the board, I do think nyk raises a valid point. It’s too early to tell whether there’s any truth to all of this, but if there is, it should be called out.
It should not, however, distract from the fact that BHusseinO let the cat out of the bag himself.
Why do they always run when I ask the simple question WHY?
matt, “called out” as what? If Joe Plumber is Charles Keating’s son who just had breakfast with him earlier in the day and had gone to the rally hoping, even muscling his way to the front so he could ask this question on taxes because Charles Keating asked him to do just that, what
would this mean to you? What would this mean to the election? How does this compromise the intellectual consistency and honesty of the McCain campaign?
Please…be specific. I’m thick.
Lets go with this one and we’ll even acknowledge that Joe is a republican plant and he’s not a “real” plumber.
Fake uneducated non-union plumber fools ‘the smartest’ person running for the most powerful job in the world into giving a real answer!
FamilyMan said:
Why do they always run when I ask the simple question WHY?
Look FM, I grow weary… you ask questions to which you know the answer…
lgm, worrying about a plant is picking the pepper out of fly poop.Since it looks like your boy Hussein is going to slime his way to the office your taxes are going up and your freedoms down.You will still be able to swoop in here and drop your bombs.At least until the goons shut it down.
Umm, ma’am – Obama PICKED Joe out of a line of people.
Are you telling us that Hussein Obama purposly picked a Republican Plant just to make himself look stupid?
Maybe he is that stupid! Miss lgm may be on to something here gang. All this time we thought Obama earned some of those grades from Haaavaad when it turns out all along he’s a run of the mill dummy socialist affirmative actions moron.
Thanks for shining some light on the subject lgm, now go to your room you silly little girl.
At least until the goons shut it down.
I do trust that the Madame Hostess has planned for that… if not, this would be a good time to
Well, now, I don’t think I believe that.
“Called out” as in shady tactics. There’s no doubt about the legitimacy of the question, but getting someone connected to a shady character himself to ask it, just reaks (sp?) of impropriety, looks bad, and ultimately becomes a distraction. Particularly with the media we have now, any slip-up by our side will be bandied about for days on end. Instead of focusing on BHO’s idiotic answer, the focus becomes the questioner, and that by extension becomes an attack on McCain’s campaign.
I don’t know if it compromises the intellectual consistency of the McCain campaign. I’m saying our side, as conservatives, Republicans, McCain supporters, what have you, is compromised by not calling out something that we would call out if it was on the other side.
What sort of garbage is this?
a) He is “connected” to a “shady character” is the same sense as Obama is connected to the Prince of Wales.
b) Nobody “got him” to do anything.
c) The Fascist picked Joe at random out of a crowd to ask a question. Do you think he was being manipulated by a Rovian mind-ray?
Dude. Settle down. We’re talking hypothetically. I’m not saying he was a plant, and I’m not saying he is connected to that other guy. None of that is proven.
Which point would that be? His assumption that it is the role of the media to destroy private citizens who dare ask awkard quesions of our masters?
We’re slouching towards despotism, and you’re worrying that a person who points that out is the second cousin twice removed to some “shady character”.
Americans do not deserve to be free. So they won’t be.
So when you said that our totalitarian thug nyk “raises a valid point”, were you being hypothetical?
/cheer
Have you read, you know, my whole posts, or do you just like picking out a line here or there?
mattymatt10 YOU CAN ANSWER THE QUESTION THAT NYK REFUSES TO.
If Catie Kuric asked the question of Joe, would you be looking into her background?
FamilyMan, I’m not sure what you’re asking there.
Our trolls are out in force–Halloween is coming, isn’t it? Why are we arguing with people who don’t believe their own words? Freddy Kruger and his love child Igor are just not that important.
Don’t Feed The Trolls-ignore them.
mattymatt10 If Catie Kuric asked the question of Joe, would you be looking into her background?
I’m just laughing at the troll’s “Obama is the victim here” spin.
FamilyMan, I think matty is committed to playing stupid.
I’m afraid America has already looked into her “background”…
(I applaud her actually for doing the cancer screening on TV since it might’ve helped others.)
On October 16th, 2008 at 9:25 pm, FamilyMan said:
mattymatt10 If Catie Kuric asked the question to OBAMA, would you be looking into her background?
FamilyMan, are you saying if Curic asked the tax question of Joe? I’m still not quite sure what you’re getting at.
I guess I’m not sure why would we look into Curic’s background? The country knows all about Katie Couric.
As for you Flenser, don’t be calling people stupid when all you do is pick and choose what lines in a post you want to respond to.
Being a plumber is a crappy job. So is being a reporter. Reporters are always digging up s**t. Plumbers have to have a license to dig up s**t but reporters don’t. How is this possible when we know the Fourth Estate is totally in the tank for truth and fairness?
BTW, I can’t imagine BO has EVER having worked a job that required him to do anything close to resembling work. His pandering to blue collar types like me angers me.
The point mattymatt10
WHO CARE WHERE THE QUESTION CAME FROM
GEEEEEESSSS!!!
Go away, you witless troll.
***** Faux News Alert*****
Joe the Plumber is really Uncle Fester.
Lerch put him up to asking Obama a simple question just to drive the libtards crazy with Obama’s dumba$$ answer.
“Thing” was with Michelle O’ doin his thing and unavailable for comment.
film at 11:00
Awkward facts.
Wow, that was some brilliant “plant” on the part of the McCain campaign. I may have to rethink my assessment of the cranky old fool.
They were using the newest techniques in remote mind control to make Obama stop and talk to Joe.
McCain must have 1000s of strategically placed operatives. You’ll never know where the next mildly difficult question will come from Sen. Obama!
Obviously I’m not communicating my thoughts effectively here. Let me try to summarize thusly:
1. The question was, of course, valid. Absolutely, no questions asked.
2. nyk’s point, as I read it, was that calling out shady relationships on one side, but not calling out shady relationships on the other side, is hypocritical. Did you all take something else from that? Cuz I do think it’s a valid point. As I said earlier, it goes to intellectual honesty and consistency, which I don’t view as a bad thing.
3. Nothing has been proven yet as far as Joe’s relationship. Therefore, this is hypothetical.
4. It matters where the question came from because, as I wrote earlier, if the questioner can become a distraction, it pulls focus away from BHO’s response, to the questioner, which, rightly or wrongly, leads back to the McCain campaign. C’mon, you people know the media we have in this country. You know this is exactly what would happen.
How is anything that I wrote sympathetic to FauxBama? All I’m talking about is intellectual consistency.
I loathe FauxBama just as much as anyone here. He belongs in the White House only as a tourist. To suggest I’m a troll or something is ridiculous. I’ll put my conservative bona-fides up against anyone here.
Off subject but Gallup shows Obama 49% and MCain 47% which is within the margin of error! For those who are into polls.
matty, matty, matty.
Try reading what your favorite totalitarian thug actually wrote.
That is, our little thug is saying that the hypothetical notion that some private citizen is distantly related to sombody is EXACTLY EQUIVALENT to Obama’s long standing close relationships with terrorists and racists.
And you, matty, are playing along with him. Suggesting that you are very stupid or just another moby.
Yeah, spending twenty years in a racist church is sure “tenuous”.
And Obama’s spending 3:1 and not showing much for it.
Like Karl Rose says…he hasn’t closed the sale. Not sure if he will either.
Looking forward to it. The treatment Joe is receiving from the media and Obama’s thugs is despicable.
It’s not Joe or his question that’s causing all these problems for Obama. It’s Obama’s own answer that’s making him look bad. Why can’t The One ever take responsibility for anything?
I’m sorry folks but mattymatt10 is in the snake pit. mattymatt10 you are in serious need of a mental health professional.
But you repeat yourself.
That’s the liberal way…blame everything on others, take no responsibility.
It’s become rather ingrained in his followers as well.
The MSM will be calling “Joe” a rightwing plant by 7AM.
Obviously, we’re reading two different things here. I can’t find where nyk is stating that the relationships are “EXACTLY EQUIVALENT”. They’re talking about whether standards on one side should apply to the other, not specific degrees of “relationship.” The quote you picked doesn’t back up your conclusion.
I’ve laid out my thoughts very plainly on this, so I’m done with it. I’m not one of these people that gets his rocks off arguing with people I’ll never meet and could care less about.
Try working on your reading comprehension skills, Flenser. And then maybe you could work on responding to entire posts/thoughts, instead of picking and choosing a sentence here or there.
I know you do. That’s the problem.
You think it is a “valid point” to to try to draw a comparison between the (theory) that Wurzelbacher, a private citizen, is a distant relative of Chrales Keating, and would-be POTUS Barack Obama’s lifelong relationships with unabashed racists and terrorists.
I have quoted your idiotic words at some length.
But perhaps that’s the problem.
No we’re not
The point mattymatt10
WHO CARE WHERE THE QUESTION CAME FROM
By all means, elaborate on the “standards” under which the personal relationships of a would-be President are held to the same “standard” as who private citizens happen to be distantly related to.
Or go moby someplace else.
INTO THE SNAKE PITE mattymatt10
The Snake Pit is a 1948 film which tells the story of a woman who finds herself in an insane asylum and cannot remember how she got there
Seriously, what sort of person says “You can’t object to wanna-be President Obama’s friendship with Wright and Ayers while ignoring that some plumber is second cousin-in-law to Charles Keating”?
Other than pre-programmed bots, of course.
mattymatt10 finds herself in an insane asylum and cannot remember how she got there.
MAJOR DEPROGRAMING IS NECESSARY.