Every now and again, Adorable Child (AC) decides she wants to be “famous” when she grows up — but then she’ll recall some example or another (there are many) of the nightmares that come, part and parcel, with the intense focus of the public eye.
I’m thinking Joe the Plumber qualifies for AC’s list of “good reasons to keep your name out of the limelight”. Just take a look at memeorandum, two mornings after the debate, where “the right” is outraged that “the left” has attacked. Before everybody self-combusts about how Joe’s life is being peeled like an onion, though, I think it’s useful to recall that full-on attacks are a bipartisan affair.
The hypocrisy is killing me.
In fact, some of those who are incensed on Joe’s behalf right now might consider a visit to their own archives. Or have they already forgotten the right’s rabid desire to destroy a 12-year-old boy and his family?
Give me a break. If you’re upset that Joe might lose his job now, then focus your ire where it belongs — on John McCain.
People ask questions of candidates all the time, but we don’t end up knowing their names, much less every possible personal detail about them. Why is that? Folks, the only reason Joe the Plumber matters to anybody this morning is because John McCain used him. He more than used him; by making him the unvetted central point of his debate narrative Wednesday night (and following it up with an ad), he set Joe the Plumber up.
Frankly, I see Joe Wurzelbacher as a pretty ordinary guy. I’ve known hundreds of folks just like him in my lifetime. The only difference is that in Joe’s case, a politician decided to throw him to the wolves, where he’s being savaged.
Just as a 12-year-old boy was a year ago.
Pathetic. All of it.
Update: Go figure. I’m a “lefty” again. Confusion is still the name of the blogospheric game.
Joe and Graeme: The hypocrisy is killing me
Leave a Reply
Read Next
Coming right on the heels of my last post on the subject, Obama brought up PAYGO in the debate last night. Here’s the complete context: I have been a strong proponent of pay-as- you-go. Every dollar that I’ve proposed, I’ve …
Yesterday, Sen. John McCain posted as a guest on Ed Morrisey’s blog, Captain’s Quarters. In it, he says that he’s pleased about the initial reactions to NK’s nuclear “test” (in quotes since nobody’s sure what really blew up…), and that …
Polimom’s troubled. Since last Thursday (when the British foiled the plot to blow up planes bound for the US), there’s been a dramatic increase in terror-related incidents… and all of them have somehow linked to people of Middle Eastern origin …
Part of the Urban Planning Committee’s recommendations for rebuilding New Orleans today (see earlier post) included sections for “infill development” projects: The report also recommends that a number of large tracts be demolished and repackaged as “infill development areas” for …
Poli. Read this first: http://mvdg.wordpress.com/2007/10/09/overdoing-it/ then use the word hypocrite again, please.
Who’s “Joe the Plumber”? Sometimes, I think ignorance is bliss.
Oh! And BTW, I don’t want to know who he is. I’m trying very hard to stay far away from as much of the mud-slinging before the first Tuesday in November as I can!
AC’s wish to be ‘famous’? My own daughter went through that phase, only I don’t remember her recalling negative examples. The ‘gloriousness of it all’ was very appealing to her.
Michael, I spent a whole bunch of time in your archives before I posted this. That’s why I didn’t put you into the paragraph that includes people who barked and snarled in 2007.
But you posted more than that single article you’ve linked.
In this one, you thought it was okay for people to mimic that little boy; the outrage on “the left” was “faux”. And in this one, you had no problem seeing (correctly, imo) that the politicians had used Graeme Frost for their own ends.
But this time around? It’s how the left has completed its evolution into totalitarianism. Oh… and it’s all because somebody questioned “The One”. Evidently John McCain and the Republicans’ use of this man looks nothing like how the Democrats used a kid last year to you.
This is a two-way street, Michael. You need to look both ways before pulling out into traffic.
Goldenrod, your comment had me LOL! I can’t even imagine how you’re avoiding stories about Joe (good for you!!!).
Last night at dinner, Dear Husband and I brought his name up (well, not his real last name. His new “The Plumber” last name), as we were amazed at the size of the controversy. AC piped right up with, “Who is this Joe the Plumber Guy? Everybody’s was talking about him at school today!”.
I didn’t see the left attacking except to “peel Joe’s life like an onion.” That seems to be fair play to me. You did have some horrible links to vicious attacks on the Frost parents which were reasonable in content and dispicable in tone. Did you see similar stuff against Joe other than researching his background?
jdave — I guess it depends on how one defines attack.
Calling him dumb?
Saying he’s a Republican plant? Or a Keating Family Operative?
Polimom,
So, you’re a lefty because you aren’t fulminating with outrage at the leftie feeding frenzy of digging into the background of Joe the Plumber? Because you can see a parallel with the rightie feeding frenzy of a year ago into Graham Frost’s life and family?
Well.
I guess if you’re not with them, you’re against them, then . . . .
The irony of MVDG’s post’s title “The Left’s Evolution into Totalitarians Completed” probably escapes him, but I find it quite entertaining, in a sad and scary kind of way.
OK Polimom, I wasn’t exactly disagreeing with you. I just didn’t see the proof yet.
Those additional links were interesting. Other than calling Joe “dumb”, those articles attacked the McCain campaign, not Joe. On the other hand, the articles you linked from right wing nuts had laundry lists of insults for the Frost parents including:
yuppies
damned kids [that one’s especially classy]
never learned responsibility
simpering wimp
spoiled brats
[and many others including all steeped in an incredibly sneering tone]
So far Polimom, it seems you have made a good case that both the left and the right are wackos, but the right is a whole lot meaner about it. I suppose you probably could dig deep enough to find more directly insulting outrage against Joe, but if it wasn’t on Daily Kos, it might only be at the real lunatic fringe. I dunno.
Or maybe you might concede that right mean streak is wider than the left’s.
BTW, I’ve been reading you for only a short while and think you do a great job.
jdave — I’ve seen both the left and the right say and do some pretty nasty things. The left took some very low blows w/ Sarah Palin imo — in particular as regards her baby Trig, and her daughter Bristol.
Some days, one side looks crazier than the other to me. Every now and again, they converge.
And here all this time I thought you were ambidextrous, only to have someone else reveal to us that you cycle back and forth as to which hand is your dominant one.
When McCain brought up Joe I thought it was going to be his lucky 15 minutes of fame. Buy the company and put “Joe the Plumber” on the side of the truck. When he mentioned him again, I knew it was all bad. People don’t normally fair well after getting hit with national spot for more then a second or two. Joe was held in it for enough time to make him burst into flames.
I’ll buy that. Keep up the good work.
Poli,
Once you’ve stepped out into the limelight, and then go on espousing McCain’s talking points on right-friendly networks you’ve given up your private citizen badge and are subject to “random checks” by the media. It’s not an attack ,it’s an investigation. Joe didn’t pass the smell test for a lot of folks so that’s why I think they dug in. Nobody’s going after the old woman who thought Obama was an Ay-rab( SNL writers excluded have they? ). I’m a NY’er, trained in that “If I see something, I say something”…and trust me I see a lot of odd things during the course of the day.
How long before we see that Chris kid post “Leave Joe the Plumber alone” cry fests ( or parodies et al)
Nobody’s going after the old woman who thought Obama was an Ay-rab
No, they haven’t. But they absolutely would have if one of the candidates decided to put her out there as a banner behind which they could organize.
I agree that Joe didn’t pass the “smell” test right out of the gate. But there are plenty of folks who do fit the circumstances he doesn’t. Which makes McCain’s use of this man doubly wrong, imo. It wasn’t necessary. They should have stuck with the concept until they’d vetted somebody.
Actually SNL did a skit with the “Ay-rab” woman already. Joe didn’t pass the “smell test”? I guess Ayers, ACORN, Odinga, Ferrekan, Wright, conversations about postponing troop withdrawal with Iraqi leaders during war time, and the like did. I missed the CNN and NBC vans parked out in front of their yards.