This past weekend, at the right wing’s RightOnline blogger conference in Pittsburgh — sponsored by Americans for Prosperity — Alternet’s Adele Stan reported that Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher attacked Nancy Pelosi for calling teabaggers “un-American.” (In fact, Pelosi said “drowning out opposing views is un-American.”) Wurzelbacher said that in the good ol’ days, he would have been able to physically “beat” Pelosi:

WURZELBACHER: For Pelosi to write about us bein’ un-American and disprespectful — I’ll tell ya what: I respect nobody who lies to me and manipulates me and takes my money and puts my children in debt. They want me to be respectful towards them? Please! You know, I’m not the most civilized person: Those kind of people, I usually took behind the woodshed and just beat the livin’ tar out of ‘em.

(UPDATE: Crooks and Liars has the video.)

Joe reiterated his statement in an interview with Stan after his speech:

STAN: There’s a lot of talk about fears of violence in these town hall meetings, and you know there was a guy who showed up with a gun strapped to his leg in New Hampshire — and I’m wondering what you have to say to that narrative?

WURZELBACHER: Let me start off by saying that I don’t advocate the violence, however, that being said, Congress has been lying to us for years. They take advantage of us, they manipulate us, and years ago people like that would’ve been taken behind the woodshed and slapped upside the head a couple times. I’m not telling people to go out and do that and I don’t advocate that if we can make our point through facts.

Listen:

For someone who doesn’t advocate violence, Joe sure spends a lot of time talking about it. A few months ago, he told Think Progress that anyone who criticized the military would’ve been shot “back in the day” and that he’d personally like to slap around anyone who “talked treasonous talk about America.”

Last week, Meghan McCain responded to Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher’s claim that he doesn’t want “queers…anywhere around my children.” “Joe the Plumber — you can quote me — is a dumbass,” she said. “He should stick to plumbing.” Not taking her advice to “stick to plumbing,” Wurzelbacher showed up at an “Average Joes, Powerful Voices” event in Greenville, WI yesterday to speak to those protesting “taxes and government spending.” But it appeared that he agreed, at least in part, with Meghan McCain’s criticism:

Wurzelbacher described himself as a “dumb plumber” who nevertheless could understand the Constitution. His themes and complaints in a 13-minute speech were similar to those voiced by speakers before and after him in the two-hour-plus event. He criticized wasteful government spending, lack of accountability, the disconnect between Christian values and politics, and political correctness.

“Washington has no idea what’s going on here or anywhere else,” Joe the Plumber said in an interview after the event. “So we need to govern ourselves more and go back to state rights.” Seeming to then take issue with McCain’s (and his own) characterization, he also criticized those who paint him as a “bad person” or “some ignorant red-neck who doesn’t have anything to say about anything.” “[It's] not true you know,” he said. “I’m very educated, I know what I’m talking about, I know the facts.”

The day before the White House Correspondents dinner, Jamie Kirchick interviewed Meghan McCain for Out, largely focusing on her outspoken support of gay rights. During the interview, McCain took a crack at a man her father made famous during last year’s presidential campaign, Joe the Plumber:

Yet even as the balance begins to shift, the old guard is still yapping in the foreground. Shortly before McCain sat for this interview, Samuel Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, gave an interview to Christianity Today in which he complained about “queers” and declared, “I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children.” Unprompted, McCain rails against the man her father’s presidential campaign touted as an American everyman and made a showpiece in the weeks before the election. “Joe the Plumber — you can quote me — is a dumbass. He should stick to plumbing.”

Wurzelbacher later followed that comment up by saying, “Men kissing each other…it throws me off.” “It’s not something I want around my family,” he told a local ABC affiliate in Toledo, OH.

While protesting government spending at Houston’s Independence Day Tea Party, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher stated that American taxpayer dollars would be best spent on the mass deportation of 12 million undocumented immigrants:

WURZELBACHER: I believe in making sure our country is safe first. I believe we need to spend a little more on illegal immigrants. Get them the hell out of our damn country and close the borders down. We can do it. We’ve got the greatest military in the world and you’re telling me we can’t close our borders? — That’s just ridiculous.

Watch it:

Wurzelbacher dedicated a private interview to saying that he’s tired of the government “sticking its hand” in his “back-pocket” and urging the government to “pull its head out of its butt.” Apparently he’s against bailouts and the stimulus bill, but he completely supports spending approximately $206 billion over five years, or $41.2 billion annually, to hunt down and deport all the undocumented immigrants living in the US. Joe probably doesn’t realize that such a policy would also mean a loss of $1.8 trillion in annual spending and $651.5 billion in annual output.

Joe’s demented view on immigration and government spending was echoed by tax protesters at tea parties across the nation. Jack Martin, Special Projects Director of the anti-immigrant hate group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) was a featured speaker at Virginia’s Prince William County American Freedom Day Tea Party. The Anti-Defamation League warned that white supremacists and neo-Nazi hate groups were planning to take advantage of the tea parties to disseminate their anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant views and recruit new members.

Last year at the height of his “fame,” Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher — aka “Joe the Plumber” — said that he was considering a run for public office. “I’d be up for it,” he said. Excited fans even set up a “Draft Joe the Plumber” site. But in a new interview with WorldNetDaily, Wurzelbacher said that he now isn’t planning to run because God doesn’t want him to:

Asked if he has plans to run for public office, he replied, “I hope not. You know, I talked to God about that and he was like, ‘No.’”

He continued, “I believe he’s gotten me on this grassroots movement. If I can encourage leaders to step up, that’s what I would like to do. That’s a heavy role. That’s something I don’t know if I am prepared to do yet.”

But Wurzelbacher said he will keep that door open if God ever calls him to be that leader.

Right now, Wurzelbacher is preparing to participate in the upcoming tea parties.

Earlier this month, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher told Christianity Today that calling gay people “queer” “is not like a slur” because homosexuality is “strange and unusual.” Speaking of his gay “friends,” he also said, “I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children.” Yesterday, a local ABC affiliate in Toledo, OH asked Wurzelbacher about his comment. “Men kissing each other…it throws me off,” he explained. “It’s not something I want around my family.” Later, while literally sitting in front of boxes containing numerous copies of his recently released book, Wurzelbacher said:

You gotta at least respect that I’m not sitting there trying to make a buck off my 15 minutes. Do I want to make some money? Absolutely but I’m going to do it the right way.

Not seeming to recognize the irony, immediately after making this statement, he then signed a copy of his book. While acknowledging that he hasn’t made as much money as he thought from the book, he said he thinks he has about a year left in the spotlight, adding, “I can also definitely see it from the other side where people are just like ‘Man just freakin go away!’” Watch it:

In an interview with Christianity Today, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher said that calling gay people “queer” “is not like a slur” because homosexuality is “strange and unusual.” He also declared that he would never let his gay “friends” “anywhere near my children:”

Q: In the last month, same-sex marriage has become legal in Iowa and Vermont. What do you think about same-sex marriage at a state level?

JTP: At a state level, it’s up to them. I don’t want it to be a federal thing. I personally still think it’s wrong. People don’t understand the dictionary—it’s called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It’s not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we’re supposed to do—what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we’re supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I’ve had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they’re people, and they’re going to do their thing.

When asked if he had planned to run for public office, Wurzelbacher said he didn’t have any “right now.” “God hasn’t said, ‘Joe, I want you to run.’ I feel more important to just encourage people to get involved, one way or another. If I can inspire some leaders, that would be great. I don’t know if I want to be a leader,” he said.

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, better known as “Joe the Plumber,” is currently in Pennsylvania shilling against the Employee Free Choice Act on behalf of the anti-labor group Americans for Prosperity. As ThinkProgress reported, Wurzelbacher faced a tough crowd near Pittsburgh on Monday, where union members rallied against him. He faced a similarly critical audience in Harrisburg yesterday, and then “skipped a subsequent rally in Philadelphia.” Keystone Progress caught up with Wurzelbacher in Harrisburg and asked him about why he opposes the Employee Free Choice Act. The fake plumber was stumped, admitting that he only knows “a little” on most issues. “I don’t know everything about everything,” he added. Watch it:

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka “Joe the Plumber,” was recently tapped by the anti-labor group Americans for Prosperity to shill against the Employee Free Choice Act. Americans for Prosperity spokesperson Mary Ellen Burke said that Wurzelbacher was chosen because “he represents the American worker” and is a “role model.” At a rally yesterday near Pittsburgh, PA, Wurzelbacher received a chilly welcome from many residents — especially union members:

Two Green Tree police officers broke up several arguments to prevent fights in the midst of a crowd of about 150 packed inside a Radisson ballroom. The crowd was divided about evenly between union members and opponents of the so-called “card check” bill. No one was arrested.

Wurzelbacher, in a flannel shirt, T-shirt and jeans, drew some of the loudest rebukes from union members, who booed and jeered him for not having a plumber’s license in his native Ohio.

Watch a report from local CBS affiliate KDKA:

As the union members noted, Wurzelbacher never had a plumbing license. Many of the people in that profession are members of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry (UA), which supports the Employee Free Choice Act.

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