By Adele Stan, AlterNet
Posted on August 17, 2009, Printed on August 18, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/142012/
At a conference sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, Joe the Plumber entered softly before taking out his big pipe wrench. Americans for Prosperity is one of the major players in the anti-health-care reform "tea party" movement.
As the opening speaker at AFP's August 15 RightOnline conference plenary, Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher (who took on the moniker "Joe the Plumber" during the 2008 presidential campaign) began his brief speech by advising his audience to "refrain a little bit" when inclined to "take a shot at the left." But by the time he wrapped up, Wurzelbacher had suggested that the speaker of the House deserved a whoppin', and implied that parents should kick their kids in order to get them to do well.
Wurzelbacher complained that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in an op-ed co-authored with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, called the threatening tactics used in town-hall meetings "un-American":
These tactics have included hanging in effigy one Democratic member of Congress in Maryland and protesters holding a sign displaying a tombstone with the name of another congressman in Texas, where protesters also shouted "Just say no!" drowning out those who wanted to hold a substantive discussion...Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.
"For Pelosi to write about us bein' un-American and disprespectful--," Wurzelbacher said, "I'll tell ya what, I respect nobody who lies to me and [humiliates] me and takes my money and puts my children in debt -- they want me to be respectful toward them? Please!"
The crowd roared.
"You know, I'm not the most civilized person," Wurzelbacher continued. "Those kind of people, I usually took behind the woodshed and just beat the livin' tar out of 'em."
The crowd went wild.
After the session concluded, I caught up with Wurzelbacher, who was hawking his book,Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream, in the hallway. What did he have to say about the threats of violence that have accompanied the right's campaign to disrupt town halls -- you know, like the guy who showed up last week with a gun strapped to his leg outside the New Hampshire high school where President Obama was scheduled to address a health-care town hall?
"First of all, let me say that I don't advocate the violence," Wurzelbacher said. "However, that bein' said, Congress has been lyin' to us for years. They take advantage of us, they manipulate us, and years ago, people like that would have been taken behind the woodshed and slapped upside the head a couple times."
"I'm not tellin' people to go out and do that," he continued," and I don't advocate that if we can make our point through facts"
That's a pretty big "if", given the fact-challenged disinformation campaign waged about health-care reform by groups like Americans for Prosperity.
"We don't have to go out and slander," Wurzelbacher said. "We don't have to go out and take up arms, or anything like that, but let the facts speak for themselves. A lot of times, from what I'm hearing, you know, for the most part, we're just being told we're an angry mob, it's right-wing zealots. It's the American people, and they've finally gotten tired of being taken advantage of, and they're standing up."
Hanging your congressman in effigy? That's just "standing up," apparently.
Oh, and Joe's parenting advice? After mentioning that his son is captain of his school football team, Wurzelbacher said, "Teachers do their job, and my size twelves do their job."
The crowd signaled its approval.
Here's the audio of my follow-up interview with Joe the Plumber.
Adele M. Stan is AlterNet's Washington bureau chief.
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