When Samuel Wurzelbacher hit the news as “Joe the Plumber,” his story played well. Presidential candidate Barack Obama had been going door to door, with cameras, in an elaborate meet-and-greet binge. When he got to Wurzelbacher’s door, he got an earful. And John McCain got one of his few opportunities to really do some damage to the Obama juggernaut.
Now, the election is over, and new causes will be celebrated and reviled. But Joe’s right to speak his mind remains a live issue, one that we should all worry about.
Yes, there’s more to this story than you may have heard.
Here’s the rest of the story: Soon after his newfound notoriety, the real Joe, Mr. Wurzelbacher, found himself under investigation by the local police.
It’s an old, ignoble tradition throughout much of the world: A person speaks up, out come the billy clubs.
Fortunately, the investigation into his private records was nipped in the bud. The records clerk who actually made the inquiry has found herself under investigation. She’s even been charged with “gross misconduct” for allegedly making an improper, politically-based inquiry.
We’ll see if the investigation goes further than just this one clerk. The higher-up who approved the probe, Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, has defended her move. Will her maximum contributions to Mr. Obama’s campaign be judged irrelevant?
We’ll see.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
13 replies on “Beating Up Joe the Plumber?”
I do not understand why this whole episode hasn’t drawn more scrutiny. This is a perfect example of “destroy what threatens you” even if it’s the truth.
The truth was a casualty of this election cycle. I hope it can be revived.
Ain’t politics great??? If you can’t beat them legitimately, bring up some dirt whether its the truth or not.
I think the Republicans deserved to lose, not because I wanted them to, but McCains campaign was pretty week and disorganized. They let the Democrats hang the “8 years of a bad economy” on the Republicans without pointing out that Bush inherited the DOTCOM bust, 911 didn’t help, and the Democrats were as much the cause of the mortgage crisis as the Republicans were, maybe more.
I am glad you made me aware of this. It makes me happy I read your column. Q
Those types of people aren’t happy until they’ve created chaos and misery for someone better than they are. They don’t stop until they’ve caused sores and scabs and then they pick at the aforementioned until they bleed endlessly. Then they gloat and look for someone else’s sewage water to swim through.
I watch or review news reports from almost all of the networks and cable channels. CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, NPR, etc, did not cover this point at all. Fox News nay have, but I did not see anything.
My point is, attacking this average guy appears to be an illegal act. In the least it was a despicable act.
Most frightening is that the public may not have been informed these actions are taking place. We cannot stand up & speak out against such tactics if we never know its happening.
The media has performed deplorably this time around. The media’s exceptionally biased positive coverage of one candidate compared to their exceptionally biased negative coverage of his opponent, is perhaps the worst modern day example of media bias we may ever have. If our media freedoms are also assaulted over the next four years with the Fairness Doctrine & efforts to “edit internet content” also happen, along with the obvious media bias we have already seen, it could foretell that Americans may see their cherished freedoms sink deeper into the pit of despotic totalitarianism, if we remain uninformed.
When Al Gore & his ilk told media types that balanced reporting created a bias against his efforts to encourage the public to embrace his global warming agenda, I knew we were in for a hard time. Such concepts belong to the despotic socialists of the world.
Please keep us informed on this particular issue. I want to see someone prosecuted for this. If we just let this go or she & others just get a slap on the wrist, we may have forfeited one of our most cherished freedoms. Its time we make those who abuse our systems & good nature, pay for their crimes and abuses.
Is this just the beginning? Show trials in Czechoslovakia. Neighborhood snitches in Cuba. Recent history is full of instances of secret institutions of Marxist special measures aimed at insuring cooperation by the populace in furthering the social revolution. Obama said it himself, “This is our time.…” Whose time? Well, John Podesta, Rahm Emanuel for starters.
Welcom to the new, English(or is it spanish?) speaking Gestapo. I have known for years that Ohio was a dump, but I never suspected it was this bad.
Thank you for reporting this story. When will people take their blinders off and see what is truly happening in our once great country? The double standard that allows the democratic party to walk all over people without any accountability must stop. If the republicians were caught in this type of behavior it would be the top story on mainstream news media.
This is just one more instance which shows the people of this country are led like blind cattle! The Dems we able to get out from under any scrunity the election year because the media is so anti Republican. We can only hope that in 4 years the country will have it’s eyes open when the Dems have no scapegoat but themselves.
The Democrat Party has now been further exposed as a gang of thugs by their actions against an individual who dared to seek the truth from Obsama. When he has the power of the presidency, can we expect a great deal more of the same including political prisons and gulags? I have the feeling that “buyers’ regret will set in very soon after inauguration.
Oh, poor Joe the Plumber (who isn’t a Joe or apparently,or even a registered plumber who was going to get his own business??) From what I saw, he was in the crowd and came up to Obama and asked him the question about small business and his economic plan, and Obama answered it. Poor Joe is really suffering now or haven’t you heard he is getting a recording deal out of this I personally feel there is something fishy about this whole thing. How come so much was made of this episode from the Republican party. Gee, Paul are you just a little biased for the elephants. Guess what, Obama won and I for one wish him the best and I would hope that you, too, would wish that our country would go forward and help our new president whether he is a democrat or republican. I find all your articles hateful..
emy:
Either you completely missed the point, or your vision has been clouded by the kool-aid. The point that is being made is that the very investigation of this citizen, SIMPLY BECAUSE HE HAD THE TEMERITY TO ASK A QUESTION OF THE MAN WHO WANTED TO BE HIS PRESIDENT, is a frightening turn of events. The reason being that the First Ammendment the First Ammendment (Freeddom of Speech) is violated when one takes actions to punish those who choose to excercise that right, or serve to make others hesitant to excercise that right for fear that they, too might be subjected to the same kind of witch hunt to which Mr. Wurzelbacher was subjected.
You see, contrary to what you might hear on MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS or CNN, this is not disturbing to us because of party affiliation, but because as an American Citizen, this action trampled all over his rights as listed in the Constitutio of the United States, and the Ammendments thereto.
It’s nice to see that someone is naming names of the “secret police” in Ohio. The major surprise was that it was Big Sister instead of Orwell’s Big Brother.
And the subprime mortgage fiasco started with the democrats, no matter what Nanch Pelosi fantasizes. You can check this by doing a Google on:
“Community Reinvestment Act” +1977 +Carter
The first result is a brief summary; the second is a lengthy Wikipedia report going back to ’77 and going through 2008. Clinton played a part in his two terms. Perhaps the dems took him out behind the woodshed after allowing Hillary to hand over both Houses of Congress to the GOP. Then again, Bubba never needed a good excuse to screw up.
Can anybody remember the Community Reinvestment Act being mentioned by ANYONE this year? McCain’s staff, trying to place the blame on Gov Palin, did a miserable job, especially after former Bush aide Steve Schmidt took over the campaign.