In Part 2 Eisenstadt arrives at the Torrance McCain election headquarters only to be dissed and essentially asked to leave. All after bragging about his many connections and how well know he his. Around three minutes in is this episodes funniest moment when discussing the absence of volunteers in the call center Eisenstadt suggests that the McCain Campaign has outsourced those jobs to India. When the “BBC Reporter” questions this Eisenstadt says that this makes perfect sense, “the United States and India are natural allies.” Even going so far as to suggest, “India and America against Pakistan and China. That’s going to be a slogan five years from now.” After this ringing endorsement of American style capitalism he gets the bad news tht the LA times wants to cancel their engagement. Lance the driver when asked says that in Iraq if you cancel you die. I honestly can’t tell if this is funny or tragic. There are aspects of this that I find very humorous but I am always left a little uncomfortable by Eisenstadts videos.
Perhaps what is most disturbing about this is that many continue to refer to him as a GOP pundit or even a campaign worker. It takes absolutely no time to google the institute he says he works for or the names associated besides which just watching the videos reveals that this is a hoax. Also, why on earth would any member of the McCain campaign start or add fire to the rumor that Joe Wurzelbacher was connected to Keating. True or not this is the last thing any of them would do.

The next installment looks funny. I will post it and a review here when it hits.

Just a short time ago a new Eisenstadt video was posted to YouTube. I knew that it was possible something else would drop soon because last night a comment was left on my first video about the possible and now unlikely Keating connection to Joe the Plumber. The commenter claimed to have a self made documentary about Martin Eisenstadt on her channel though there were no videos posted. There is now. Here is what I assume is the first installment of The Last Republican – Part 1: The Pundit.

I am still trying to figure out if this is a tangential activity to the posts on the blog. Clearly the posts are fake but I am wondering if the video productions are at all a clue in the Joe the Plumber situation. Still there is little to go on other than speculation so I won’t elaborate too much on that until I have more to go on. This video is much funnier than the Iraqi TV video or the other satires on the old YouTube channel. My favorite joke comes when Eisenstadt is listing his many long associations with conservative Washington insiders. He says, “Bill Kristol was my counselor in…in, in Zionist summer camp.”

Eisenstadt & assistant

Notice that the assistant is clearly the same person who played the interviewer in the Iraqi TV video. Take a close look at the driver as well and see if he reminds you of anybody we know. I don’t know how all this fits together but I find it hilarious.

The "Iraqi" interviewer

Earlier today Michele Malkin mentioned Joe the Plumber and even Eisenstadt though I guess she hasn’t gotten the memo yet that Eisenstadt is a hoaxer.

“That’s been the left-wing blogger obsession all day. It started with a post from GOP blogger Martin Eisenstadt, who says that Joe Wurzelbacher the Plumber is a ‘close relative’of Robert Wurzelbacher, who is the son-in-law of Charles Keating.”

Another spike on the hilarity front is a something John McCain said today regarding Joe Wurzelbacher, “He wasn’t recruited or prompted by our campaign. He just asked a question. And Americans ought to be able to ask Senator Obama tough questions without being smeared and targeted with political attacks.” What I find so comical about this is not the notion that he wasn’t hired by the campaign because now I’m thinking McCain may be the butt of the joke. What’s funny is the idea that Joe is being attacked or smeared at all or that it’s happening by Democrats. I would like to say for the record that my research partner and I are neither working for Obama nor voting for him. I have never been registered Democrat and it is unlikely I will be at any point in the foreseeable future. Of course there are others on the trail and I won’t speak for them but I thought I’d make my own rejection and denouncement since that’s all the rage these days. Another fact for the record–we were aware very early of the tax lien and other personal information gleaned from court documents that still have never been published here or on other blogs associated with us. Our goal is not to harass Joe Wurzelbacher but to examine the heart of John McCain’s economic and cultural argument, a caricature and possibly an all out fraud.

I don’t think I need to add any more context to this than I already have.

This is getting stranger all the time. For a while it was looking more like Joe Wurzelbacher was legit but I’m starting to have more doubts. Here are some updates and new thoughts on the matter.

Earlier Politico reported that Joe was not registered to vote. I was thinking perhaps when they checked the rolls they didn’t realize that Joe is Wurzelbacher’s middle name but eventually it was confirmed that they had looked for the correct name but the problem is actually that the registration has the last name spelled wrong. This means that the form was not filled out properly or not properly verified with ID. Perhaps that was all just a simple mistake but in that case Joe never noticed and/or corrected it. Some have speculated that he could have been purged from the rolls because of the misspelling but I haven’t seen any evidence of that and now the NYT is reporting the following regarding the registration:

“We have his named spelled W-O, instead of W-U,” Linda Howe, executive director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, said in a telephone interview. “Handwriting is sometimes hard to read. He has never corrected it in his registration card.”

The records, she said, showed he voted Republican in the March primary.

I find it hilarious that for weeks now conservatives have been hammering the ACORN stuff, the crux of which is phony registrations and now their poster child has an inaccurate and therefore illegal registration.

There are problems with this story beyond the voter registration though. Joe Wurzelbacher is not registered or licensed as a plumber either. There are some strange nuances to the law regarding this in Ohio which I will not detail here as it is available in the NYT article linked above. Even still the local union representative is angry that a man who has never taken an apprenticeship course is suddenly the national representative for plumbers.

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.)

“He’s basically playing games with the world,” Thomas Joseph, the local’s business manager, said in a telephone interview Thursday morning.

If we are to assume that this is where the falsities end then this is still a pitiful moment for the nation. The Joe the Plumber character does not represent either Joe Wurzelbacher’s actual situation or almost anybody else’s. There are serious questions about why this particular man has become the focus and in the mean time the national media is consulting him for analysis of tax plans. He clearly is not an expert or an objective observer of the policies or the campaigns. He seems to not even be an expert on his own life. Even in this most generous scenario it can be said that “Joe the Plumber” doesn’t exist but I think the reality may be even more damning.

Martin Eisenstadt is still cropping up around my research. Earlier this evening when I was first piecing this together I made a YouTube video explaining some of what I’d found and just now the fake Iraqi TV interview I mentioned in my last post was posted as a video response to my original video.

Hopefully we will have answers soon about the extended family of Joe Wurzelbacher. In a situation like this a blogger such as myself is simply hoping to raise enough questions for others to pick up the trail, hopefully those with a platform and in this case that seems to have happened. I will stay on the story but others are on it too so good information is likely to come from anywhere, even the mainstream media (*wink*).

Check out this funny “attack ad” directed at Joe the Plumber (won’t embed for some reason).

It seems as though Joe Wurzelbacher is not registered to vote in Ohio. This calls into question many things not the least of which is his intention to vote for anybody on Nov. 4th. When looking through the public records available online it’s not entirely clear who Joe Wurzelbacher is or what his affiliations actually are. Now that it is morning somebody who is local to this story should start investigating family ties at the courthouse. Without calling old folks at home I am at a brick wall in what I can find out. Public records can clarify the relationship between Joe and Robert Wurzelbacher  (not Richard as in earlier versions of this) if any. To be clear it was the father of the Keating son-in-law who died in 2004.

Back to Joe the Plumber. The business he works for, Newell Plumbing, appears to be a chain. The locations that I have looked into look like residential properties based on the google satelite images and they are not the property Joe Wurzelbacher is said to reside at on the street where he had the encounter with Obama.

Many have pointed out the oddity that this man who is supposedly not involved with politics would be interviewed by several right wing media outlets prior to the debate and was already confirmed for the morning shows by the time the event wrapped up. Within hours it was reported that the McCain Campaign had asked him to attend a rally on Sunday but he was going to be out of town for the weekend…doing the talk show circuit it turns out. Many have also remarked on the similarity between the talking points he’s been repeating and some new ones cropping up around the talk circuit with Stephanie Miller reporting that she’s recently gotten calls with the same language. Also an odd thing, if nothing else, is the presence of newspaper reporters at his house to photograph him watching the debate, though he says he had no idea he would be mentioned. Of course he was more than mentioned, he was McCain’s whole line of attack.

This brings me to what is perhaps the oddest convergence of all in this. My research partner and I were among the first people on this and before even our regular readers had seen our posts we were seeing links in from Martin Eisenstadt. He is a strange character, and I mean character literally. He was involved in a recent hoax involving a faked video of an interview from Iraqi television which fooled some in the mainstream media featuring him promoting an idea for building casinos in the green zone in Iraq. There is also a YouTube Channel featuring the same person doing other related satires. “Eisenstadt” posted a supposed quote on his blog from Rick Davis chastising staffers for the connection between Joe the Plumber and the Keating Five. I must admit that initially I saw this quote out of the context of the original blog and although it seemed unlikely Davis would say it, at first I didn’t know how to integrate it into the whole narrative. When I realized where it originated things started to make more sense, slightly.

Many things about this aren’t adding up and the proximity of a known hoaxer has me even more perplexed. I’m sure that people are looking into the Keating connection as we speak but check out this “Martin Eisenstadt” and see if you think you recognize any of his tricks in the Joe Wurzelbacher situation. I don’t want to draw too many outlandish conclusions in one night but I am comparing the video tapes closely.

The real problem with Joe the Plumber, even if he’s not some kind of republican plant or hoaxer, is that he’s a caricature. The situation he sketched out to Obama doesn’t even accurately reflect his own reality let alone that of typical small business owners. As Obama pointed out 98% of small business owners make under $250,000 a year. If it had been accurate it would still not be representative. Further more there is no reason to believe that Joe the Plumber has any special insight or understanding into the truth of the matter when if comes to tax policy or any other policy. At best he’s a snapshot of what that one person chose to project at that moment and it has gotten out of hand. At worst it’s an attempt by republicans to either create or shamelessly capitalize on what is really a meaningless moment. How much a fiction Joe the Plumber is almost doesn’t matter because no matter how you slice it, that’s what he still is…fiction.

aren’t turning up. Actually there are some holes big enough that they may change the narrative. Double checking some assumptions made early on and looking into the mysterious presence of a spectre resembling Pan. More to come.

******Those interested in following my research into Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher and Martin Eisenstadt can follow all posts here******

**7:20 pm Thursday October 16. 2008—I just posted another update about this.

**10:30 am Thursday October 16. 2008–I just posted an update with the various things that have been clarified and the new findings from throughout the night here. Please see that post for the most recent and relevant information.**

2:15 am Thursday October 16. 2008

Ok, this is the big one. We have confirmation that the last name we were using is in fact correct so I will now reveal the connections since the name has been said on MSNBC and CBS.

Joe the Plumber is Joe Wurzelbacher. There is a Jan Wurzelbacher associated with a Joe and the address with the building I have pictured below. Earlier tonight I called the number associated with that address and the name Wurzelbacher Bros. and the machine message made no mention at all of any business.

Now to the Keating connection. As mentioned in a previous post the name Wurzelbacher is fairly uncommon so it’s not hard to track down potential connections just using geography and ages to make the likely connections. There is a Robert Wurzelbacher who died in 2004 (possibly deceased is more accurate) who is in the same area and is of an appropriate age to be a parent or uncle to Joe who according to reunion.com is 33. This Robert Wurzelbacher not only had a history of campaign contributions to republicans but is implicated in the Keating Five scandal. The full text of the article relating to this is below. There are other Wurzelbacher contributions to McCain and other republicans in other parts of the country. We are looking into those now. With the confirmation of the last name and the limit number of family members this looks very bad. There is also no such plumbing business listed or advertising and the number I called (I only called one so as not to disturb at a home number late at night) makes no effort to tell you that you have reached a business. This is looking very, very much like an act.

Here is an article from 1992 regarding Richard Wurzelbacher’s connection to the Keating Five:

Keating In-Law Enters Plea And Will Assist Prosecutors

A son-in-law of Charles H. Keating Jr. pleaded guilty today to three Federal fraud counts in connection with the collapse of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Assocation and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as they pursue their case against Mr. Keating.
The guilty plea was the sixth from executives and business associates of Lincoln and its parent company, but was the first crack in what until now had been a united Keating family defense against the charges in the case.
Mr. Keating and a son, Charles H. Keating 3d, still face an array of fraud and racketeering charges brought against them in a 77-count Federal indictment issued last year. Their trial is scheduled for August in Federal District Court here. Mr. Keating was convicted last year on separate fraud counts in a California state court and is serving a 10-year prison sentence. Bad Loans to a Hotel
The guilty plea today was from Robert M. Wurzelbacher Jr., who had been a senior vice president of Lincoln’s parent company, the American Continental Corporation of Phoenix, and the chief executive of an investment firm owned by Lincoln Savings. Mr. Wurzelbacher, who is 38 years old, is married to the former Elizabeth Keating, one of Mr. Keating’s daughters.
Mr. Wurzelbacher pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer to three felony counts of misapplication of federally insured funds. The charges were not among those made against Mr. Wurzelbacher in last year’s Federal indictment.
His guilty plea involved charges arising from $13 million in loans and advances made by Lincoln Savings, which was based in Irvine, Calif. The money went to a limited partnership that owned and operated the Hotel Pontchartrain in Detroit.
Mr. Wurzelbacher and other officers and employees of Lincoln and American Continental, including Mr. Keating and his son, were partners in the limited partnership, according to court documents.
The prosecutors said that in pleading guilty Mr. Wurzelbacher admitted that he and other Lincoln and American Continental executives had made the loans and advances knowing that they probably would not be repaid and were not in Lincoln’s best interests.
Prosecutors said that the hotel suffered large losses, but that the limited partnership generated substantial tax benefits for Mr. Wurzelbacher and the other limited partners.
In all, Lincoln suffered losses of more than $23 million on loans to the hotel, according to a civil suit against Mr. Keating filed last year by the Resolution Trust Corporation, the Federal savings and loan bailout agency.
Mark Beck, a lawyer for Mr. Wurzelbacher, said that in pleading guilty to three counts his client would not be subject to the strict sentencing guidelines that would apply to the charges in the indictment.
“It was not an easy decision, but he had to keep in mind that as the father of two grade-school children he faced substantial consequences if the defense was unsuccessful at trial,” Mr. Beck said.
Lincoln was seized by Federal regulators three years ago just after American Continental filed for bankruptcy protection. Lincoln’s collapse is expected to cost taxpayers $2.6 billion. Mr. Keating, unfairly in his view, has come to embody the political influence peddling, mismanagement and fraud that pervaded the savings and loan industry.
As part of his plea, Mr. Wurzelbacher agreed to cooperate with the continuing investigation of Lincoln by the United States Justice Department and a host of state and local law-enforcement and regulatory agencies, said David A. Sklansky, an assistant United States attorney who is prosecuting the case.
Mr. Sklansky said the Government had also agreed to move for dismissal of all the counts against Mr. Wurzelbacher in the Federal indictment. Mr. Wurzelbacher could be sentenced to as many as 15 years in prison and fined as much as twice the loss caused by his actions.

This would be too, too good if we are correct. Ok, there may be a family connection between Joe the Plumber and Charles Keating. I am still going to attempt to maintain the annonimity of the people in case we are incorrect but we have narrowed down the possible last names of Joe the Plumber and the one we have been working with is starting to look more and more probable. It’s an unusual last name, actually only 173 people in the U.S. census who have it. A person from the same area with this same last name not only has a long history of giving to republican candidates but is…get this…the son in law of Charles Keating, married to his daughter Elizabeth. Not only is he in the family but he was actually indicted in the S & L fiasco and turned state’s evidence against Keating. From a 1992 article, ” A son-in-law of Charles H. Keating Jr. pleaded guilty today to three Federal fraud counts in connection with the collapse of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Assocation and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as they pursue their case against Mr. Keating.”

I will of course provide you with the full text once I have decided to reveal the last name but again, in order to protect this family I want more confirmation before I blow up their spot so to speak.

But here’s the basic question. What is the likelihood that a random Joe plumber would be asking this question when a Joe plumber with family ties to republican contributors and EVEN Charles Keating, from the same area, ends up in a photo-op confrontation with Obama and McCain would just happen to use it in the debate? I kind of hope we’re wrong about this but then again, I kind of hope we’re not. More to come I’m sure.

I came across a clip on cnn just now in which Soledad Obrien actually questions the validity of the Joe the Plumber story although it’s contextually buried in her focus on the voters rejection of it as a debate zinger. Watch this http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/10/15/seg.voters.joe.the.plumber.cnn..

Also I tried calling a number associated with the only plumbing business in the state that correlates to the names and locations involved and there is no mention of a business of any kind on the answering machine, just the name of the person who is related to a Joe…to protect their identities I won’t reveal the entire connection but here is a picture of the address associated with said number. I’m still following up on this but in the mean time I will move on to question number two. (damn ADD…there is actually sometimes a problem with hyper-focus though you might not realize it)

Is this the location of a plumbing business generating net profits of over $250,000?

Ok other than the joe the plumber bs that first segment was nothing but the typical talking points. snooze.