Below The Beltway

It’s been quite a week for Holland, Ohio’s own Joe Wurzelbacher.

It started with a meeting between the Ohio plumber and the Democratic nominee that became memorialized in a YouTube video that ends with Obama telling Plumber Joe that he wanted to “spread the wealth around.” That earned Wurzelbacher an appearance on Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox News Channel.

And, then he became the star of last night’s debate and the man became a metaphor that both candidates used to try to put across the message that they were more in touch with the concerns of middle class and working class voters than their opponent. According to CBS News, Wurzelbacher’s name was mentioned a rather astounding twenty-six times during the course of the debate by both candidates.

In fact, Joe the Plumber was mentioned so many times that I was waiting for one, or both, of these guys to suggest that they’d nominated him to the Supreme Court when that question came up and I was beginning to agree with Megan McArdle’s opinion on the subject:

I am second to none in my appreciation of the many contributions that plumbers make to Our American Way of Life. Nonetheless, I am slightly concerned that we are spending so much time focusing on the effect of our national policy on Plumbing-Americans.”

And that is a sentiment that, apparently, Wurzelbacher agrees with:

[A]fter the debate, Mr. Wurzelbacher expressed some embarrassment that he was now known across America as Joe the Plumber. “There’s a lot more important issues than me, and I’m starting to feel a little uncomfortable with it,” he said. “Everyone’s more worried about what Joe the Plumber has to say than what Obama or McCain has to say.”

Notwithstanding that, though, it’s sort of inevitable that there’s been a media storm brewing around this guy all day today.

This morning, he appeared on Good Morning America:

Only a few hours later, he was interviewed outside his home by local media seemingly unaware that his remarks were being broadcast worldwide by MSNBC:

And there’s even a YouTube video posted last night wherein Joe the Plumber becomes Joe the Political Pundit:

And, inevitably, there’s already been a backlash forming against 2008’s version of the political everyman. Overnight, there was speculation that he was really a plant and allegedly related, distantly, to Charles Keating of all people. There was an allegation this morning that he wasn’t even registered to vote, and another one that he was connected to the rather-wackly Natural Law Party. And, apparently, he owes about $ 1,100 in back taxes.

Of these allegations, only the tax allegations seems to be true. You see, there is, unsurprisingly, more than one Joe Wurzelbacher in the State of Ohio.

But that’s not all.

This afternoon, it was reported that Joe the Plumber wasn’t really a plumber:

An official at Local 50 of the plumber’s union, based in Toledo, said Mr. Wurzelbacher does not hold a license. He also has never served an apprenticeship and does not belong to the union. (The national plumber’s union, the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters, and Service Mechanics, endorsed Mr. Obama, it should be noted.)

That one, it would seem, is easy to answer. If he’s required to be licensed to do the work that he does right now, then he either has one or he doesn’t.

But, you know what ? I don’t think it matters.

Whether the metaphor of “Joe the Plumber” works or doesn’t work for McCain isn’t going to depend very much on Wurzelbacher — it’s going to depend on what the public thinks of it, and that’s something we won’t know for several days at least.

In the meantime, you can rest assured that we will learn much more about Joe Wurzelbacher, and plumbers in general, than we ever wanted or needed to know.

H/T: James Joyner