joe wurzelbacher – Warren Throckmorton

State of Ohio employee ordered to check on Joe the plumber

Where, oh where is the truth?
The Columbus Dispatch is on this one.

Friday, October 31, 2008 10:21 PM
By Randy Ludlow
Vanessa Niekamp said that when she was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case.
Niekamp didn’t know she just had checked on “Joe the Plumber,” who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain’s example in a debate of an average American.
The senior manager would not learn about “Joe” for another week, when she said her boss informed her and directed her to write an e-mail stating her computer check was a legitimate inquiry.
The reason Niekamp said she was given for checking if there was a child-support case on Wurzelbacher does not match the reason given by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Director Helen Jones-Kelley said her agency checks people who are “thrust into the public spotlight,” amid suggestions they may have come into money, to see if they owe support or are receiving undeserved public assistance.
Niekamp told The Dispatch she is unfamiliar with the practice of checking on the newly famous. “I’ve never done that before, I don’t know of anybody in my office who does that and I don’t remember anyone ever doing that,” she said today.

Read the rest at the link

Julie the records clerk charged with investigating Joe the plumber

From WNWO:

Toledo Police have confirmed that a TPD records clerk is accused of performing an illegal search of information related to ‘Joe the Plumber.’
Julie McConnell, has been charged with Gross Misconduct for allegedly making an improper inquiry into a state database in search of information pertaining to Samuel Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16.
Wurzelbacher came under the spotlight after being spoken about during the final presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain.
The inquiry into Wurzelbacher’s record is a violation of department and state policy governing the use of the Law Enforcement Automated Data System. The clerk is under fire for making the inquiry for a non-law enforcement purpose.
McConnell was hired by the Toledo Police Department in April 1995 and assigned to the Investigative Services Bureau.
A discplinary hearing will be scheduled within the next ten days.

That makes two public officials investigating JtP.

Why does the media care more about Joe Wurzelbacher's record than Barack Obama's record?

Joe the plumber was on the Mike Huckabee show last night. I was unable to watch it but the Toledo Blade has some coverage. I have been amazed at how the mainstream media can apply journalism to Joe’s past but for some reason we hear very little about Obama’s past. Understandably, the scrutiny is intimidating to Joe W.

Mr. Huckabee said that Mr. Wurzelbacher only asked a question when Mr. Obama happened to stop by his current neighborhood a week ago. Mr. Huckabee asked how Mr. Wurzelbacher felt about the scrutiny he’d received.
“It actually upsets me,” Mr. Wurzelbacher said. “I am a plumber, and just a plumber, and here Barack Obama or John McCain, I mean these guys are going to deal with some serious issues coming up shortly. The media’s worried about whether I paid my taxes, they’re worried about any number of silly things that have nothing to do with America. They really don’t. I asked a question. When you can’t ask a question to your leaders anymore, that gets scary. That bothers me.”

The moral is, if Barack Obama comes to your door, don’t answer.
Most of what I can find about Obama’s record on housing is on blogs or primary sources. Other than the Boston Globe article, where is the investigative reporting of Obama’s record in Chicago?

Wurzelbacher a plant? Not possible, says reporter on the scene

On October 12, Barack Obama held a campaign appearance in Toledo, Ohio. On his way to a planned speech, Obama stopped to do a little door-to-door politicking in the suburban Toledo neighborhood where Joe Wurzelbacher lives. Investigating the suspicion by some that Joe Wurzelbacher was a McCain campaign plant, I called reporter Tom Troy of the Toledo Blade. Tom was covering Obama’s visit to Toledo and was on the scene for the meeting between Obama and Wurzelbacher.
According to Troy, the stop location was known only to the Obama campaign and the Secret Service. Troy said, “Nobody in that neighborhood knew Barack Obama was going to be there.” The press was aware that some kind of unscheduled stop was possible but they did not know where or when it would happen. Said Troy, “It’s not possible for him to be a plant. It was totally unplanned.”
Mr. Troy told me that the motorcade stopped so that Obama could talk to voters in an informal manner. According to Troy, the conversation between Obama and Joe occured “right in front of his [Wurzelbacher’s] house.” Troy said that Joe gave credit to Obama for being willing to stop and talk to people.
I hope that clears things up.
Read Tom Troy’s October 12th article.

Breaking: Joe Wurzelbacher is really Joe Wurzelbacher

Now the U.S. News and World Report has become unhinged.
Bonnie Erbe gives credence to the conspiracy theories about Joe Wurzelbacher – aka, Joe the Plumber. The media is tearing into this guy with a vengence, even questioning his name, because he uses his middle name, something by the way that I do.

Joe the Plumber so loves media attention, he’s drawing pro-Obama bloggers to question his authenticity as an undecided voter:
Joe has been on so many right wing talk shows it appears pretty obvious that this is a coordinated attempt to pull a last second ‘tax and spend’ haymaker. Family Security Matters, a wingnut security policy thinktank, has the first interview with Joe after this Obama encounter. Hmmm. What’s the chance that a group like this gets the first interview with this alleged ‘undecided voter’?
Other blogs say Wurzelbacher may be related to Charles Keating of the Keating Five and that his father is a major Republican donor:
Joe the Plumber, the star of tonight’s debate, may have a very interesting connection to John McCain. In fact, Joe the Plumber (Joe Wurzelbacher) of Cincinnati, Ohio may be related to one Robert Wurzelbacher of Cincinnati, Ohio, who happens to be Charles Keating’s son-in-law. Robert Wurzelbacher was implicated in the Keating 5 scandal, and sentenced to 40 months in prison in 1993. Wurzelbacher is also a huge Republican donor.
Keep watching this story because if it proves true that “Joe the Plumber” is the wealthy, Republican regular the liberal blogs are claiming he is, the McCain campaign could go down as the most corrupt and inept in history.

Read this story from the Toledo Blade which is from the day of when Obama and Joe met. There are many people around and Obama is on the street meeting people. How the McCain forces could set this up is beyond me.

Mr. Obama’s longest conversation was with a man who said afterward that he likes Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president.
Joe Wurzelbacher, 34, a plumber, debated with Senator Obama about his tax plan.
‘I’m being taxed more and more for fulfilling the American dream,’ Mr. Wurzelbacher said.
Mr. Obama tried to convince him that his plans to give a tax cut to 95 percent of Americans and to raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000 would be good for the plumbing business by helping get the economy righted.
‘Pretty good practice’
As Mr. Obama left, he said, ‘I’ve got to go prepare for this debate, but that was pretty good practice.’

This apparently amended article sets the context for Obama’s visit to Springfield Township. He dropped in the neighborhood.

Mr. Obama arrived in Toledo yesterday for the start of three days of intensive preparation for Wednesday’s final presidential debate, but he first made an unscheduled stop in a Springfield Township neighborhood to canvass for votes.
The candidate surprised residents of the working-class Lincoln Green neighborhood off McCord Road when his motorcade made the unannounced stop on the way in from Toledo Express Airport.
Wearing a white shirt, suit trousers, and no tie, Mr. Obama chatted, joked, hugged, posed, and debated for 45 minutes with the folks of Shrewsbury Street who came out of their homes to meet him.
Rachel Jesko, 28, a teacher, was dropping off her friend when she saw the motorcade in the neighborhood.

Joe Wurzelbacher talks to the press

Let John McCain mention you before millions of people, and things change a bit. Mr. Wurzelbacher is talking about the debate and more to the press.

Ohio plumber Joe Wurzelbacher talks about his dialogue with Obama and spreading the wealth

UPDATE: Joe Wurzelbacher held a news conference this morning at his Holland, Ohio home. Holland is about 8 miles from Toledo.
In a prior post, I referenced a conversation between a plumber and Obama on a campaign stop in Toledo Ohio. The questioner’s name was Joe Wurzelbacher and he has gotten a bit of attention surrounding the YouTube video. An advocacy group Family Security Matters secured an interview with Mr. Wurzelbacher and I think it is worth the read. Mr. Wurzelbacher seems thoughtful and expresses many concerns many conservatives and small business owners have about the Obama tax plan. Here are some excerpts:

At a recent campaign appearance in Ohio, Sen. Obama was approached by plumber Joe Wurzelbacher, who has concerns about Obama’s proposed tax policies. FamilySecurityMatters.org’s Pam Meister had a candid conversation with him about his experience.
PAM MEISTER: You recently met Sen. Obama on the campaign trail in Ohio, and you asked him a question about his tax policies. What exactly was your question for him?
JOE WURZELBACHER: Initially, I started off asking him if he believed in the American Dream and he said yes, he does – and then I proceeded to ask him then why he’s penalizing me for trying to fulfill it. He asked, “what do you mean,” and I explained to him that I’m planning on purchasing this company – it’s not something I’m gonna purchase outright, it’s something I’m going to have to make payments on for years – but essentially I’m going to buy this company, and the profits generated by that could possibly put me in that tax bracket he’s talking about and that bothers me. It’s not like I would be rich; I would still just be a working plumber. I work hard for my money, and the fact that he thinks I make a little too much that he just wants to redistribute it to other people. Some of them might need it, but at the same time, it’s not their discretion to do it – it’s mine.

Regarding Obama’s statement that he didn’t want to punish success:

PM: …taxing small businesses making $250,000 and above is going to help the people “behind you.” And yes, “spreading the wealth around.” How did you feel about that?
JW: As soon as he said it, he contradicted himself. He doesn’t want to “punish” me, but – when you use the word “but,” you pretty much negate everything you just said prior to that. So he does want to punish me, he does want to punish me for working harder to – you know, my big thing is the American Dream. I work hard. You know, I was poor; my mom raised me and my brother by herself for a very long time until my dad came along. So I know what it’s like to suffer. It’s not like I was born with a silver spoon. Usually it was a wooden spoon and it was on my butt. It was just a contradiction of terms, what he said: he doesn’t want to punish me but he wants to redistribute my wealth. And what I mean when I say my wealth, I mean the collective. Eventually – I mean, just to sound a little silly here, but you need rich people. I mean, who are you going to work for?
PM: Do you fear this is the possibility of America turning more down the socialist road if Obama does become elected and if he is able to implement these policies?
JW: Very much so. You start giving people stuff, and then they start expecting it – and that scares me. A lot of people expect it now. They get upset when their check’s late, they get upset when they don’t get as many benefits as they used to, or when different government agencies are cut or spending is cut here and there for whatever reason – people get upset at that. And that’s because they’re used to getting it and they want more. I mean, everyone’s always gonna want more. People work the system left and right to get more out of welfare, to get more out of state assistance, federal assistance. And if government’s there for them, they’re gonna keep on trying to manipulate it to get more out of it. You got people that come along and say, “Hey, I wanna help you people,” I mean, they’re all ears! They’re like, “Hey, you can help me more, I don’t have to work as hard, I don’t have to do as much, and you’re gonna give me this? Man, that’s great, you’re a good guy.”

I hope McCain or Bob Schieffer raises again Mr. Wurzelbacher’s questions. Like central planning and wealth re-distribution or not, we need to hear more from Mr. Obama about his economic philosophy.

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