McCain to Embrace ANOTHER Unqualified Nut Tied to Scandal
Scott Horton explains that the McCain camp and Bill Kristol are in such a tiff because McCain’s loyalists are pissed at Kristol for sticking them with Palin.
SH: Right. And if you look just in the news cycle from the last 48 hours, I would say the anger and irritation between a number of the senior people in the McCain camp and Bill Kristol has become really acute. I mean, it’s flashed and Kristol again, saying basically that the entire campaign team should be fired, and they respond in kind criticizing him, saying he was mouthing Obama talking points, and so on. What is the touchiness that underlies all of that? They view this man as the guy who gave them this albatross, Sarah Palin. I think there’s a lot of real anger about it. There’s also recognition that it’s too late to do anything. They can’t replace her, they can’t drop her, they’re stuck with her right now. And there’s also some suspicion, as one of the McCain advisors raised with me yesterday, there’s some suspicion that they had dumped McCain, that basically they’re now just proceeding to develop Palin as their candidate, as somebody they want to bring up in 2012, as the neo-con favored Republican. And I think that really has some of the McCain old school advisors bristling right now. [my emphasis]
I have a hard time feeling sorry for these people. After all, even I knew that Palin had an abuse of power scandal about to burst, and I hadn’t claimed to vet her.
Plus, they’re about to make the same mistake again.
The Toledo Blade is reporting that Joe the Plumber is actually not licensed. But that, combined with his apparent tax lien, isn’t lessening McCain’s ardor.
[snip]
“I’m probably going to call him this morning," McCain said. "I thought he would probably be up late. I heard that his — that his phone lines were pretty well flooded. But I think we’re going to be spending some time together.”
So let’s review.
Joe the Plumber is not actually a plumber.
He lied when he said he would be making enough to have his taxes raised under Obama’s plan.
He’s prone to racist statements.
He claimed to be uncommitted, though he’s a Republican who registered to be able to vote in this spring’s primary.
According to the rules Republicans would like followed, Joe the Plumber would be forced to cast a provisional ballot, since his name is misspelled in the voter rolls.
He’s related to Charles Keating’s son-in-law.
And he’s a tax cheat.
Yet McCain wants to campaign with this guy.
Update: Sully says it more succinctly than me.
Like Sarah Palin, a great concept. But the McCain campaign needs to be able to vet its hood ornaments.
I don’t think McCain will be able to blame this one on Bill Kristol.
Nixon had better plumbers than McCain.
Looks like Charlie Crist also has given up on McCain. He’s saying ACORN is not engaged in fraud. I don’t think Charlie’s a neocon wannabe. I can’t decide if he’s still miffed he was passed over for VEEP or if he has decided McCain is toast. That’s very good news, because a real last-ditch effort by Charlie probably could have given McCain another 4 or 5 points and that is the current margin for Obama here in Florida. After this statement, though, I doubt Charlie will appear at any more McCain campaign events.
I think Crist can see the polls. When is Crist up for re-election? I think he’s scared of what an Obama backed Gubernatorial candidate can do down there.
The Gov race is offset with Pres, so Crist is up for re-election in 2010. I hope Alex Sink decides to run. She is the only Democrat elected to statewide office on the last round (CFO) and actually has experience running a bank responsibly. Her husband was Jeb’s last opponent in 2002, but I think she would have run a better campaign.
Yes, but what is her position on the all important issue of pardoning Jim Morrison? I am a single issue non-voter in Florida.
Quick show of hands:
How many people know what bmaz is talking about? No fair googling.
I think I know, being of my generation and all.
probably more than you’d expect with this crowd
The Doors lead singer, for showing us his, uh, unit in Miami?
“Let it roll, baby, roll.
Let it roll, baby, roll.
Let it a’roll, baby, roll.
Let it roooollllll,
All night long!”
Break On Through to the Other Side?
oh, oh
(waves hand)
I know
I don’t care
but I know …
I was always more partial to Yeats …
I only asked because I remember a time when your position on that was still seen as a matter of political importance. I really hope that this is the last presidential election that requires us to re-fight the stupid arguments of the late ’60’s and early 70’s.
I just never cared all that much about Jim Morrison
I never related “The Doors” to Aldous Huxley. I source back to the original poem (william blake ???)
and I don’t think Morrison related to any deeper meaning in the symbols he used
just my opinion
having an opinion on Morrison’s “unit” seems to say more about a person’s level of intelligence, rather than his political views
I experienced the 60s as a child. what most people consider to be important markers in the cultural revolution, I consider to be standard operating procedure. that’s just the way things were when I was growing up
Vietnam, Woodstock, Altamont, Kent State, Watergate, none of that seemed abnormal to me. I didn’t know anything else
took me a long time to figure out that I didn’t exactly have a “normal” childhood
Here’s the best reference I could find:
Apathy For The Devil
I do I do !!!!!
Jim said he really didn’t do it, it was mass hypnosis. He just mesmerized the audience into believing it.
Guess we have to go for the pardon since extradition would be tough. Maybe Sarah’s witch doctor guy can help us out here…
If George Pataki can pardon Lenny Bruce posthumously for obscenity, then Crist must pardon the Lizard King for his “wardrobe malfunction” – if there ever was one! Memories of university days visiting the grave at Pere Lachaise….
Oh, was that you I saw in Pere Lachaise?
Yeah, that was me, but then again we both KNOW that he’s not really dead, right? /s
one day my boss bill graham called a company meeting to give us a status report on The Doors movie he was executive producing. he had just met with oliver stone who told him he was considering tom cruise for the lead.
cut to: a room full of faces frozen in horror. bill rushed to assure us it would never happen, and he had someone else in mind.
in the end a flawed but fascinating film, but for me still val kilmer’s best work.
Cool story! Thanks for sharing, I personally thought Kilmer was good in The Doors, as well as Tombstone.
Thanks for weaving this together…
You think KO will lead with this story?
Damn..some leaking pipes..the basement is flooding
Ew if you have not all ready done so. The piece on the Vets outside of the debate last night at DN is chilling
At this point, the McCain campaign planting “Joe the plumber” (and we all know that by this time tomorrow the evidence that they did will be undeniable) is just sad.
Think about it: they knew they had to totally remake this race, and this was their big stunt to change it.
Sad.
that is exactly how i see this too.. joe the plumber is a ‘republican set up’ whereby he eventually announces he is voting for mccain.. no neutrality in anything about this guy…….
How weird is that? Is he a plant? If so, he’s yet another non-vetted McCain campaign tool.
So wait a second. I thought Obama ‘just walked down his street’ where he was playing football with his kid, and it was a chance meeting. Is that not the case?
Very funny and well done.
Have you played the If Palin Was President interactive game?
http://www.palinaspresident.us/
That was hilarious!
The McCain/Kristol rat-fuck reminds me of the time I was third in line at a stop sign and the guy in front of me honked because he thought the middle-aged woman ahead of him had passed a good opening to make her left turn. She then promptly accelerated only to broadside a car coming from her right that had slowed down to turn onto the street we were on. So she got out of her car and chewed the guy who honked a new one.
Just to correct a point.
Even though he is a name mismatch, Joe the plumber would get to vote since he registered in 1992.
Under HAVA, the database mismatch only applies to new registrants (Ohio has decided this means since January).
And THIS fact should serve as the basis of an equal opportunity claim against disenfranchisement of the new voters.
Actually I believe that the law requires one voting within the last two General Elections or ones name is purged. In addition, Samual J. Wurzelbacher was initially registered in Arizona (intriguingly, about the same time that McCain campaign contributor Robert W. Wurzelbacher, Jr. was being sent to prison for his involvement in the Keating S&L Loan embezzlements).
Thus Wurzelbacher is technically a “new registrant” although he was, apparently, eligible to vote in the Republican primary. IF he did, he did so under a false identity (that misspelled name that the Republicans claim is “fraud”).
BTW Did anyone think it rather curious that McCain kept referring to “Non-Plumber Joe” as “My Old Friend” when he actually (supposedly) has never met the guy in his life before?
Either McCain is a habitual and pathological liar with his use of this “My old friend” bulldada…or perhaps he really does HAVE a long-ago relationship with a once young Arizonan named Samuel Joe Worzelbache. “Joe” happens to have lived in Tucson as a young man, got divorced there, and shares a surname with a McCain-Keating associate.
Dear Senator McCain, could you please provide us with all the plumbing records for all of your many houses and structures that have plumbing, so we can ensure that you used licensed plumbers. And also, could you provide us with your medical records so we can check on YOUR plumbing as well
By the way, “Joe” was apparently once a member of the “Natural Law” party/group. Those people are fucking wacked; basically advocate that statutory law is ineffective, secondary to and otherwise of no moment to the natural law of morality and God. When the Federalist Society first started it’s malignant gestation, there was a lot of this kind of crap in their beliefs and advocacy.
bmaz–
I kind of love the First Amendment and all, but doesn’t the Federalist Society strike you as a kind of subversive organization that needs to be investigated? They do not strike me as having goals that support the rule of law as I understand it.
Particularly when you look at the judgeships that their members already have obtained–If I were a Senator, Federalist Society on the resume would be an automatic disqualification for any appointee, to anything.
Doesn’t the whole early twenty-first century Republican Party strike you as a kind of subversive orgnaization that needs to be investigated?
Paging Max Blumenthal and Scott Horton
Oh, absolutely. They are a total oxymoron. The surface principles they spew are not at all what they are really about. And. although subversive is a little bit of a loaded term, I think it does apply. Just for instance the “original intent” and “legislating from the bench” bit they pound as to the judiciary; nothing could be further from the truth with them, they are all about getting decisions and jurists that express their own line of conservative/right wing creed, not anything at all to do with following established law or the intent of constitutions, whether federal or state.
So who would have planted Joe? They can’t blame that on Kristol too, surely?
Okay, so the Keating connection starting to make sense, sort of. I don’t think he’s a plant, maybe this is a little closer:
The Keating son-in-law is a big Ohio Republican. Joe P., related via family somehow, is an R too, hears Obama is coming to his neighborhood, and decides he’s gonna go out there, maybe to stir the pot a little, ’cause he’s a cocky jackass.
Now he’s in a world of hurt because the whole world knows his business.
How’m I doing?
…that’s pretty good. Then add the fact that Joe probably calls his dad who calls McCain to let him in on the joke. hahahahaha.
the sad part is they don’t know how transparent they are.
There are so many things to point to for McCain’s Titanic campaign, but jeez, lying about who he told his bomb Iran joke to in Debate #2 was just so lame. I didn’t think it could get more lame.
That makes sense to me too, except that the McCain campaign really decided to run with it hard. How many times did McCain mention Joe last night? I would have thought that was stupid anyway, but they obviously thought they were on to something. Now they look double stupid. At least.
On Chris Matthews tonight they said “Joe the Plumber” was mentioned 32 times (that seems impossible). Matthews also reported that “Joe” was not licensed in Ohio.
Really something that McCain would mention Joe so often and ignore the Iraq War Vets outside who wanted to ask Obama and McCain some questions. Hell the MSM ignored these Vets and so is the progressive blogosphere?
What Vets?
Perfect.
One of the reasons I don’t think he’s a plant, furthermore, is if he were it would mean the McCain team was getting REALLY inside info on Obama’s schedule. This wasn’t an announced stop, so how would you know to send Joe there (really, to his neighborhood)?
But I agree–Joe has figured out he doesn’t want the press to be sniffing in his business any longer. This stunt has already cost him the $1000 he owes in taxes, I presume.
On Good Morning America this morning, Joe said that he was invited to go, so he went. He did not say who invited him or when they did it.
Too late.
Not to mention any customers who didn’t know he didn’t have a license AND the State Licensing Board, who presumably takes this kind of thing seriously.
I think the local Plumbers Union called foul already.
If not a “plant”, how about a “graft”? The questioning might have been spontaneous, but Joe sure has a good ear for Republican talking points and has been remarkably available to the media in the hours since the debate. It would have been prudent for McCain’s gang to make sure he was on message after putting so many references to him in the debate, even if he was not vetted.
And apparently, like all good Republicans, they decided to use non-union labour for their outsourcing!
Did anyone notice that John McCain did not know Michelle Obama’s name last night? He called her “your lovely wife.” The inability to recall information more recently learned (as opposed to older memories) is a symptom of dementia.
He was forgetting a lot of stuff.
Freddie Mae?
Trig has autism?
I voted against Bush?
It’s not Mrs. That One?
also at the end, there was that weird “good job” “good job” “good job” “good job”….
my grandmother had TIAs, and did stuff like that.
I had categorized it as condescending or possibly racist, but undoubtedly you are correct. Regardless it is disrespectful
heh.
Someone should have explained to McShame the three most important things in running for President:
– judgment
– judgment
– judgment
I had a feeling you would be on this skeevy guy. Check out his celebrity talking points:
the joe the plumber references will not stop on msnbc…too funny.
still no mention about the Iraqi war Vets arrested and trampled last night outside the debate. What war? Iraqi War Vets protesting…who cares. Not the MSM. Story at Democracy Now
I saw something there (in Politico?) about him belonging to something called the Natural Law Party. If that phrase doesn’t ring a bell, think pubic hairs on coke cans.
I only see Eisenstadt as a source on the relationship to the Keating 5 Wurzelbacher.
This Kos diary says there are two Robert Wurzelbachers, and the one from Ohio is 83 years old and a big Republican donor.
We don’t know for sure if either is related to this nutcase.
I was really hoping but maybe my tinfoil chapeau was pulled out prematurely.
But maybe not.
Anybody else see anything else about this? Has a reporter posed the question?
LOL. Updated the post with this line from Sully:
Sully is on a roll: “Joe the Plumber has now had more press conferences than Sarah Palin.”
What is it with Republicans and plumbers?
McCain Still Receives Big $$$s from Keating S&L Figure Linked to BCCI and Organized Crime
Posted by leveymg in General Discussion
Thu Aug 21st 2008, 06:18 PM
A lot of people are familiar with S&L crook Charles Keating’s illegal contributions to John McCain in the 1980s. What most don’t know, however, was that Keating was implicated in the BCCI takeover of a number of S&Ls, including his own. With me, so far?
Carl Lindner, an Ohio billionaire with CIA and underworld connections who owned Chiquita Bananas, was Charles Keating’s original partner, banker, and mentor. Lindner got Keating wrapped up with schemes involving the usual cast of BCCI characters, shady Saudi bankers, the Bush family, and Iran-Contra money laundering. Keating was always a sort of pass-through guy, without any real money of his own. But, a lot of money flowed through Keating to McCain and his wife, Cindy, in an Arizona real estate scam. Lindner who was recently convicted of financing Right-wing death squads in Colombia, is still giving big, dirty campaign checks to McCain. Now, that’s a story that the American people need to hear.
leveymg’s Journal – THE CRIMES AND COVERUPS OF JOHN McCAIN, “REFORMER” Jun 3, 2008 … Like the Bush Family, McCain had his Hand in the BCCI and S&L Scandals McCain claims that his involvement in the Keating S&L scandal wasn’t …
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/… – 48k
McCain Backer’s Firm Pleaded Guilty To Funding Terrorist Group In Colombia …Jul 2, 2008 … Late last week, Lindner co-hosted a $25000-per-person fundraiser for McCain and the Republican Party in the wealthy Indian Hills …
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/02/m… – 146k
Wow. Thanks for that heaping helping of dirt on Big Mac.
So now we know one of the real reasons for McCain’s visit to Columbia, to protect his own peeps?
Jeebuz. Now McCain’s hiring
lobbyistsstrategists like Charlie Black and Randy Scheneumann makes EVEN MORE sense.(walking off in a daze…)
Gicthegumee @45: no wonder McSame rolled his eyes last night re Obama’s reference to death squads.
OT:
Saw in the LA Times that Edie Adams died.
Edie Adams Obit
The Ernie Kovacs re-runs on PBS were a staple of my household when I was a kid…
Sully has corrected the Keating connection.
Joe or Sam came out of his house in Holland Ohio when he heard the commotion from his neighbors, then he asked Obama his rhetorical question about the American Dream, and claimed to be what he was not, someone who could afford a $250K business. He’s a single dad and owe’s back taxes. He lives in a pretty much middle class suburb outside of Toledo in an average house. He said a racist thing on teevee. The trip to Holland was an unplanned stop by Obama, he was showing by example, with clip board in hand, of GOTV.
What is missing fromt the story is the brillant handling of this average voters question by Obama. Its on You tube. Obama knew the ins and outs of his plan, could incorporate Sam’s problem, and give him an honest answer. too bad that story is usurped by McCain.
From First Read earlier today:
From two days ago, Obama canvassing in Holland, Ohio:
Then a big, bald man with a goatee asks if he believes in the American dream. He tells Obama he’s getting ready to buy a company that makes more than $250,000 a year. “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?”
I’m wondering if, maybe, jus maybe…the Obama campaign didn’t set this thing up to “punk” McCain.
Imagine if they knew that there was a guy related to Keating -McCain associated Robert M. Wurzelbacher in this Toledo neighborhood. Maybe there’s some Obama supporter nearby who knows about this guys lamebrain vitriol and thinks, “this would be a great photo-op…Obama standing down this guy and his Bulls**t. In fact, maybe he’ll even say something racist or really way out there.”
So Obama comes up his street and Mr. Right-Winger takes the bait. In fact, Obama has even invited a Fox News Crew along.
It’d be a perfect way to get Keating back in the news cycle…especially if Fox or Drudge…passed this back to McCain and he didn’t bother to vet “Joe the Plumber”.
A riff on the vetting of Sam the Plumber on MS NBC. I wondered if freepatriot wrote the script because, as you’ll see, they use the term “rethuglican”.