Joe the Plumber (or not): A Chronology

In the past 24 hours, America has been introduced to the most famous plumber (quasi-plumber?) since Donkey Kong spun off its plunger-toting hero into the long-running "Super Mario" videogame series. I speak, of course, of "Joe the Plumber."

Joe Wurzelbacher first burst onto the national politicalscene at an Obama campaign stop in Holland, Ohio, where he asked the Democratic nominee why he was giving present Joe a tax cut, but increasing Future Joe's taxes by 3% on income over the $250,000.00 mark.



In short order, Joe was appearing on Fox News, with some decidedly un-undecided-sounding rhetoric. Unless plumbers who are just "mulling things over" go around talking about "redistributing wealth." Mine is more into Jungian psychology.



Obama's idea of shared responsibility and shared prosperity didn't sit too well with GOP candidate John McCain, who took up Joe's cause at last night's final presidential debate.



As yet, there have been no additional debates scheduled around other individual voters. Joe was quick to give his political analysis of the debate.

That's when things got interesting for Joe.

Suddenly thrust into the spotlight, Joe held court over a media frenzy. He appeared on "Good Morning, America" this morning.



That's right, Diane, Joe is complaining about the tax cut he's going to get now.

Soon, Joe was the star of a McCain campaign commercial.




Of course, the media started to look into Joe. There was an unfortunate detour into retractionville, as it was erroneously reported that Joe was related to Charles Keating.

Then, came the revelation that Joe is not actually a plumber, at least not a licensed one. Damn government regulations.

Next, it was reported that Joe didn't really need the tax cut, since he doesn't pay 'em anyway. He has a $1183.00 tax lien against him in the State of Ohio.

Oh, and he voted Republican in the primary. And he compared Senator Obama to Sammy Davis, Jr.

And his name isn't Joe, it's Samuel.

So, sure, who can't relate to a plumber who's not a plumber, who makes $280,000.00 a year (in his hypothetical), who pretends to be an even-steven "undecided," who doesn't pay his taxes?

I'm sure my favorite electrician will have something to say about this.

Tommy Christopher co-hosts "Unusable Signal",on BlogTalkRadio, Tues through Thurs at 10pm, and Fri, and Sat at 11pm. (Eastern) Click here for the Unusable Signal homepage.