Joe The Plumber Quitting The GOP: Time Magazine

Stop the presses... (even though we haven't received the press release yet). Time Magazine is reporting - burying rather - the news that Joe the Plumber, also known as Samuel Wurzelbacher, is quitting the GOP. That's big news considering Joe became the new GOP mascot during the McCain campaign and has since advised the party during conferences and in Capitol Hill briefings.

Below is the excerpt from the Time article.

Well, more elections. Big Government is never popular in theory, but the disaster aid, school lunches and prescription drugs that make up Big Government have become wildly popular in practice, especially now that so many people are hurting. Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, tells TIME he's so outraged by GOP overspending, he's quitting the party -- and he's the bull's-eye of its target audience. But he also said he wouldn't support any cuts in defense, Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid -- which, along with debt payments, would put more than two-thirds of the budget off limits. It's no coincidence that many Republicans who voted against the stimulus have claimed credit for stimulus projects in their district -- or that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal stopped ridiculing volcano-monitoring programs after a volcano erupted in Alaska. "We can't be the antigovernment party," Snowe says. "That's not what people want."

Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!

Comments

[FreelanceMinion]

At first I laughed like this--

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Thinking this showed that the Republicans were too far gone for even crazies like Not Joe the Not Plumber.

But it might be good for the GOP actually. If the real crazies start running for the libertarians or Constitution party or whatever, maybe a party of smart moderates will emerge. I don't like politics as a game, so even if I don't ever vote for another Republican, I would sure prefer for the opposition party to be smart moderates rather than the stupid extremists of recent.

[SSF]

Way to go, Plumber Joe! Good move ditching the G.O.P. They're yesterday's news. Besides, you'll be much happier among your fellow National Socialists anyway. And you've already got the hairstyle for it!

[MrGovtCheese]

You know things are bad when the plumber has to abandon ship.

[Cowboylove]

People do not want large or small government, they want efficient government. No one minds paying taxes if they get what they pay for. Shoring up the nearly bankrupt Halliburton was not what we paid for. Paying Blackwater $250,000 for each mercenary they sent to Iraq was not what we wanted to pay for.

The GOP still doesn't get it. American want a government that protects them, supports them and makes American a better place for all of us. Though George W Bush presided over the largest growth in government since FDR, he did something FDR did not do. He made the government an enemy of the people. He spied on us, stole form us and sent our children off to die in an unnecessary and unjust war. He disgraced us around the world and embraced torture - something America has opposed since its inception.

Republicans continue to make the mistake of defending their actions over the last eight years. You cannot defend the indefensible. If the GOP is to rise form the ashes, they will have to denoumce the GOP who destroyed our reputation and our economy. Until they are ready to do that, they should remain content to be in the minority.

[applescruff]

Joe was never a Plummer,never had his own plumming business, never was a war correspondant and probably never really was a Republican. Joe is whatever title will makeJoe more money. He'd probably say he was gay if the money was right. He'd just make sure to stay away from his own kids. Oh yeah. He really doesn't have kids of his own either. seems as though the only title that would remain appropriate would be "Joe the Liar".

[j-rich]

yet another hardcore republican who's abandoning the GOP Titanic

[Kent Allard]

"But he also said he wouldn't support any cuts in defense"
because thats theres nothing in the $711billion for FY2009 that could be cut, no sir.
And they absolutely possitively need all those ICBMs, nucear armed submarines, the First Strike enabling Missile Shield, space based weapons R&D, and a host of other hostile programs.

[Ronju01]

Joe the Plumber, Time's 'Man of the Year 2009'.

[Yikes10036]

Why do we listen to him?

[Bizu]

Joe the NON plumber is now Joe the NON GOP... see joe run.. run joe run!

[JayDDrew]

You gotta love it!
Bush disappears after running the country over a cliff. Cheney is ranting like someone several cards short of a full deck. Moderate Republicans are leaving the party in droves. A few hardcores can't stand the fact a minority was elected head of the RNC. That same head (Steele) has, not one, but two feet stuck in his mouth. The media mouths (Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh, etc.) are defining the party's policies. The number one candidate for the presidency (Palin) who can't answer simple civics questions has skeletons falling out of her closet left and right. And the loonies like this clown named Joe on the extreme right are also leaving, because the party isn't extreme fringe enough!
I truly am starting to believe the Republican Party may not be able to recover from this implosion. It's like watching a slow motion movie of a building demolition as it collapses on itself.

[dcjdjay]

Guess they fired him. One more job he can't hold.

[BannedInBoston]

What did they expect? First they try to make a phony appeal to the American worker, and then they get gross and extreme political incorrectness. (Even most dedicated r e d n ecks would know better than to say what he said on national TV and then try and justify it.)

[BannedInBoston]

But instead of following Arlen Specter to the Democrats, he's joining a militia....

[MarionWatts]

Well, the GOP HAS sunk to new depths if their poster-boy is leaving. For a t o o l like Joe to distance himself from the GOP, something has to be rotten in the state of Denmark, or rather, Ohio.

[flyingpuck]

Definitely a sign of the times for Republicans. Although Joe was a blessing to Democrats. As long Joe the Plumber, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and the entire Palin gene pool are the loudest voices from the right, us lefties are in great shape.

[BannedInBoston]

I suspect it was more a matter of them distancing themselves from HIM, especially after his remarks about g a ys and the language he used with respect to them on national TV. The GOP probably told Mr. Plumber that he was now a persona non grata in the party and had two choices -- either leave under his own power or wait to be ordered to leave.

[espresso4me]

Oh no! Say it isn't so, Joe! The prospect of not hearing the voice of Truth, Justice, and the Real American way is weighing heavy on the True Americans.
Even though your words of wisdom gave many of us really long pauses to grasp the reality of what you were actually saying, we always would come away with the knowledge that indeed, you really did say it. You truly did believe what you said.
Each time we gasped, shook our heads in wonderment of your unbelievable statements. Well, now with a wink and a plumber's helper--goodbye Joe. Really.