John McCain Made Joe the Plumber Feel Dirty

Man, I swore I was done getting on Joe the Plumber's case after I visited his sad little website, saw that only 144 people had registered there to pre-order his book, and yet they still couldn't meet their original publication date.

Here's the problem: The guy won't stay off the TV. He gave an interview with Glenn Beck in which, to his credit, he exposed both of them as idiots. First, the money quotes: (from HuffPo)

"I honestly felt even more dirty after I had been on the campaign trail and seen some things that take place. It was scary, man," Wurzelbacher said. He told Beck he asked McCain "some pretty direct questions" about the bailout, and wasn't pleased with the response. "They appalled me, absolutely. You know, I was angry. In fact, I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him.

OK, Joe, show me on the doll which policies upset you.

Crap. He's making me like McCain. Beck asks why he stayed with McCain, and he said he was too scared of Barack Obama. Oh, I remember that. Yeah, that's why it would be better for everyone if Joe stuck to unlicensed plumbing.

But here's the exchange I love most of all. First, there's Joe, with perhaps the least coherent paragraph ever uttered by someone other than Crispin Glover. Followed by Beck "clearing things up."

JOE THE PLUMBER: Oh, their way of life, absolutely. I mean, she would curtail that. She would bring in, you know, common sense answers to -- you know, you were just talking about how you need to be a genius to run a system that, well, when you can't run it. I mean, you need to break it down, really scale it back and start over a little bit. Maybe back where our founding fathers are at. I mean, you know, for example, you know, Hillary Clinton, the whole deal with her as far as becoming Secretary of State. You know, it's kind of against -- well, it's not kind of. It's against the Constitution right now where it stands. But they're talking about getting around it. You know, seems like every time they want to do something, if something's in the way, they will get around it. What are we teaching our children? What are we teaching people, just even ourselves? You know, if something's in the way, we're going to get around it? It's there for a reason and I mean very good reasons. Our country's been the greatest country in the world for a very long time, yet these people think they're good enough or smart enough and they will get around it so that way they can serve? They don't want to serve. They just want that power is all it comes down to, Glenn.

I'm not sure how Glenn figured out what the hell Joe was getting at, but he manages a completely wrong answer:

GLENN: Well, I think you are right on the money. I will tell you this in talking to one of my guys who's deep in the Constitution, he's saying that she can't have two offices. That's the problem. She can't occupy the two offices and then two different branches, but it's kind of iffy on that. It's not really clear. And if she gets rid of her office, then it should be fine. But she couldn't be a senator and Secretary of State. That's the real problem there.

Even a cornpone like Caleb Howe knows that the problem with Hillary's appointment has to do with arcane pay rules, not simultaneously holding 2 positions. Didn't you guys hear? The Nanny's got that seat sewn up.

In the interview, Joe also talks about the New York Times book review, which I agree is overly harsh. At least Joe showed enough respect for the profession to hire a ghostwriter.

So, here we are at minute 16 for Joe. I think it is in everyone's best interests to buy a copy of Joe's book, so he can retire and stop talking. I should be getting my copy today.