The Conservative Political Action Conference kicked off yesterday in Washington, DC. Joe the Plumber was apparently mobbed by fans. MSNBC featured Plumber's appearance yesterday on at least three programs.
(AFP/NEWSCOM/FILE)Photos (1 of 1)
CPAC: Is Joe the Plumber the new leader of the GOP?
By Jimmy Orr | 02.27.09
Is the party of Reagan now the party of Plumber?
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) kicked off yesterday in Washington, DC and although MSNBC’s Chris Matthews compared it to a Star Trek convention, it really serves this year as more of a soul searching event for Republicans after two back to back shellackings in 2006 and 2008.
GOP stars Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal are both absent from the conference. Palin in Alaska. Jindal at Disney World (perhaps hiding celebrating his well-discussed speech on Tuesday night).
Plumber
Everyone’s favorite plumber was there though.
Maybe not everyone’s favorite. But make no mistake, those on the left love Joe the Plumber. In fact, Plumber (we’ve given up on calling him Wurzelbacher) may have more fans on the left than on the right.
He’s got his conservative groupies too. Notes Politico’s Andy Barr, Plumber received “rock star treatement” yesterday and apparently was mobbed by devotees.
MSNBC
But it was MSNBC (or “MSBS” as Mike Huckabee called the network yesterday) that’s giving him the most attention.
Plumber’s appearance was discussed and/or lampooned on the shows of Keith Olbermann, David Shuster and Rachel Maddow Thursday. They’re eating it up.
Perhaps the strategy is that if Plumber can somehow be painted as the face of the floundering party, the floundering party will continue to flounder. Only more.
Plumber love
Shuster had conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams on his program yesterday and went straight to the point.
“Why should anybody take CPAC seriously when it … invites Joe the Plumber to be one of the featured speakers? Good grief!” Shuster exclaimed.
Offering up a noodle-limp defense, Armstrong said, “You know, he represents a certain constituency out there…”
Shuster couldn’t resist cutting him off.
“Right. He represents those who don’t have a proper license with tax liens against them,” he said. “Does the Republican Party really want Joe the Plumber to be a role model?”
Let the market decide, Williams responded. Conservatives will figure it out for themselves who they want to listen to.
Shuster’s already figured it out.
“Armstrong, it’s an easy call, though. CPAC. There are a lot of intellectual conservatives, people who we may have a lot of disagreement over policy issues, but people I respect, who are willing to say it’s a huge mistake for conservatives to make Joe the Plumber a featured speaker at their conference!” he said.
Keith
As much as Shuster gets it, Olbermann enjoys it.
“Did CPAC not pay for oxygen this year?” Olbermann laughed. “What went on there?”
Olbermann took delight in noting Plumber’s book signing event yesterday resulted in a grand total of five sales and ended after 55 minutes despite having the venue booked for three hours.
He also seemed to enjoy playing a clip of Plumber announcing he might run for office in six years (video below). This means apparently that a Plumber/Palin 2012 ticket is just a dream.
GOP dissenter
At least one Republican though isn’t following talking points and is questioning the direction of the party specifically in regard to Plumber’s role.
“If you want to get a sense of how unserious and ungrounded most Americans think the Republican Party is, look no further than how conservatives elevate Joe the Plumber as a spokesman,” writes Patrick Ruffini on his blog. “The movement has become so gimmick-driven that Wurzelbacher will be a conservative hero long after people have forgotten what his legitimate policy beef with Obama was.
“A movement self-confident in its place in American society would not have made Joe the Plumber a bigger story than he actually was,” Ruffini wrote.
<< Chris Matthews, Bobby Jindal, and God | MainComments
2. HEVERNAUT | 02.27.09
“bobby” jindal is a muslim who now conveniently claims to be Christian. Jindal and BO are 2 pea in a Pod! PALIN 2012!
3. RHarrisonScott | 02.27.09
The left’s projection of Joe the Plumber as the new Republican leadership is just another pathetic attempt to marginalize anyone who fails to embrace their idealism. Perhaps the Republicans should consider electing Keith Olbermann the new leader of the Democrat Party. He would be an excellent candidate because he represents the true face of an arrogant elite who have nothing but contempt for the intelligence of anyone daring to ask questions.
4. David Pope | 02.27.09
Joe is just a distraction to a party that needs no more distractions. Beyond that, Joe is a straw-man for the liberal media to burn. As much as the NRP seems to be floundering and on a doomed mission to try to discover “who we are”, the real answers lie in the grass roots of the party. We are the party who empowers INDIVIDUALS to realize their dreams, their hopes and their aspirations. We are the party of CAPITALISM and FREEDOM around the globe. We are the party that believes wholeheartedly that the United States has a special place in the grand history of the world. This is the message we need to bring to the people.
I say, Yippee for Joe the plumber. I hope he is living the dream. However, he is not my role model and CPAC should not have focused on him. CPAC should be focusing on how to get the TRUE message of conservatism to the people.
5. Jane | 02.27.09
Mr Orr.,
I appreciate the way you give a flavor for liberal and conservative response without redundant, misleading, or thickly biased editorial.
6. LaurieTS | 02.27.09
Bobby Jindal is not a Muslim, and no one who supports Sarah Palin would allege such a thing. Nice try, Obamabot Hevernaut, keep trying to frame Palin supporters.
Joe the Plumber represents the average American these days and that is wht people can relate to him. He isn’t some pacifist who sucks up liberal Kool-Aid. During the election campaign, he asked Obama a very good question and had the cajones to do so. He took Obama by surprise, and Obama admitted he wanted to ’spread the wealth’. It’s time that real people represented our government, not corrupt elitists who are out of touch with Americans’ issues these days.
7. Laurie TS | 02.27.09
You guys, Joe is just one of MANY people speaking at CPAC.
Geez, stop complaining, we have college students speaking there, as well as many others from high up in the government to more laypeople, which I think is a very good mix. Especially the showing of thousands of conservative college students! By the way, go see media malpractice website about the media lovefest with Obama and the smearing of conservative leaders.
8. Josh H | 02.27.09
This guy’s dumber than a box of rocks. How can you run for president in 2014? The next race after 2012 is 2016. And the fact that he says he’ll run after 2012 shows that he doesn’t think a Republican’s going to win in 2012 anyway.
9. Andrew R | 02.27.09
Damn, the Republican Party has become such a joke, I’m starting to feel really bad for the more moderate Republicans out there. It’s always nice to have 2 healthy politica parties to balance each other out, but wow, the GOP has basically become the equivalent of the National Enquirer. It’s now just one big circus with Rush Limbaugh as it’s Master of Ceremonies, and Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann all piling in the little clown car! Very, very sad! Where are the fresh ideas coming from this party? It’s turned into a party bankrupt of new ideas.
10. jerry | 02.27.09
HEVERNAUT:
No, idiot, BO is not a Musilm. But great, keep up the ignorance along with so many other republicans, it will make beating you again in 2010 and 2012 all the more easier.
11. Gunny | 02.28.09
Achieving the dream in this country takes time. It appears that those like Matthews and Olbermann never started from sheer poverty as some of us have. I spent 17 years in the Corps and then went to college only to be associated with the specious nonsense spewed by those like Jim Dandy and Hevernaut. Go put your life on the line for this Country kids and you may understand why the rest of us understand what Joe the Plumber is trying to tell you.
12. Ann Carlson | 02.28.09
“Joe the Unlicensed Plumber with a Tax Lien Problem” definitely represents the Republicans in Denver, Colorado. Around here, Republicans have started stockpiling food and water because - with Obama now in office over 30 days - “The End is Near”.
At Fort Carson - yes, a military base - the Republicans removed a picture of their Commander in Chief from the commissary.
I hope Joe the Unlicensed Plumber with a Tax Lien Problem gets nominated by the RNC. It’s just like the Republicans to imagine a plumber - any plumber - makes over $250,000 a year.
13. fatcat | 02.28.09
This guys 15 minutes of fame was up a long long time ago.
Everytime he opens his mouth, it validates the voters choice of rejecting McCain and Palin who worshiped him.
He should go get a plumbers license and do something useful.
14. fatcat | 02.28.09
This guys 15 minutes of fame was up a long long time ago.
Everytime he opens his mouth, it validates the voters choice of rejecting McCain and Palin who worshiped him.
He should go get a plumbers license and do something useful.
15. Bruce Donnelly | 03.01.09
The point which is lost in all this is that conservatives value the ordinary individual - not the unchecked power of elected officials to rule over individuals as they please. This is not a parliamentary system of majority party rule. Bureaucratic structures defeat any significant accountability or checks on that power. We’re witnessing a historic power grab like a coup which will soon be hard to reverse, regardless of any voter misgivings. I have lived in countries with martial law dictatorships, rule by executive decrees, and the hyperinflation and misery which unchecked government power imposes on individuals. I do not want to see us go down that path to serfdom. This is tyranny with barely a fig leaf of cover, as in Venezuela. If Republicans still stand for anything, they must stand firm against this.
16. Former Republican | 03.01.09
Joe Wurzelbacher and Sarah Palin are the talk of the Republican Party.
Neither can complete a sentence, neither has any knowledge of the history of our country, neither can respond to any question without demonizing someone, neither would be the most intelligent person in the room at a Junior High faculty meeting. The Democrats rally around an eloquent, thoughtful, educated constitutional law professor, and the Republicans rally behind a plumber who trashes the Bill of Rights every time he opens his mouth, and a Govenor who insults the intelligence of any college graduate. We need to not only identify a leader and some candidates for 2012, we need to get these clowns off the stage. Why do you think MSNBC shows every minute of video of Wurzelbacher, Palin and Limbaugh? Because as the CPAC attendees swoon and fall in line, the other 90% of the country dismisses the Republican Party for giving these people their stage. These sort of anti-intellectual, anti-science, nativist Republicans have already ensured Obama 8 years in the White House, and by 2016, the Party might not be viable at all.
17. Gary | 03.01.09
What a biased article. I’m astounded. Joe the Plumber was important in the last presidential race because he stood up and asked Senator Obama a legitimate question that none of the slobbering, gushing, shiver up their leg, main stream media would even try to articulate. Joe isn’t dumb, he saw what was happening. As far as his tax situation….. in light of all the recent democrat problems with taxes, I’m surprised this was even mentioned. If dems would stick to the issues instead of trying to crucify every conservative on the face of the earth, some headway might be made in this country.
19. JoeToo | 03.03.09
Joe the CPAC Hack had a legitimate policy disagreement with Obama? Really? If I recall, Joe would have paid higher taxes under McCain’s plan. No need for discussion based on facts - just keep the vitrol up, its great for business, can’t you tell?
20. samati rose | 03.07.09
I am another guy from Toledo (living in a nearby county with 17% unemployment)The economy needs to shrink to the true value things ……what is a sandwich worth?………or a dozen eggs?………or a days work?………. These questions are easily answered by anyone here………
now………….
and in touch……….
apples fell from trees
before Joe the plumber…………
apples will fall from trees
after Joe the plumber
eternity is beyond our thoughts……… and conceptions……..
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Jimmy Orr has worked in politics for the majority of his professional career working for two U.S. Senators, two Governors and one President. Most recently, Orr served as White House Spokesman and Internet Director for President George W. Bush and Special Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger for Internet Communications.
David Cook is Washington bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor and host of the Monitor's newsmaker breakfasts. He was the Monitor's editor from 1994 to 2001. Cook is a graduate of Principia College, served in the U.S. Army, was a Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, and is a member of the Gridiron Club, Washington's oldest journalistic organization.
1. Jim Dandy | 02.27.09
I love Joe the Plumber. He is such an idiot and a dishonest one to boot. His claim to fame is lying in the face of the future President of the United States about his job, his plans and everything else about his sorry life and being deified for it by McCain and Palin, two intellectual giants of the Republican party. His rise to a level of leadership in the ranks of the GOP is such a signal of the poverty of spirit of that party and it should send every Republican running to a third party if not to the Democrats.