Joe the Plumber Becomes Joe the Candidate

Joe the Plumber is crawling out from under the sink, pulling up his pants, and hanging up his tool belt. Samuel “Joe” Wurzelbacher, who gained fame during the 2008 presidential campaign for being a “hardworking Joe,” is running for congress.

Joe the Plumber announced his intention to run for Congress earlier this month, but he’s going to make it official today. Yahoo reports that Samuel (yeah, his name isn’t really Joe) has filed the paperwork and is set to announce his candidacy for Ohio’s ninth congressional district.

Joe the Plumber said:

“Maybe we need some regular guys in there… That’s what I’ve been doing the past two and a half years, just encouraging regular Americans to run. Tell the liberal media to go to hell, and I don’t care what you guys say about me, I’m going to try to fix this country.”

Wurzelbacher will have to beat Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur if he wants to represent the ninth district. But Kaptur, who has been representing the district since 1983, isn’t too worried about Joe the Plumber.

Kaptur’s spokesman Steve Fought, said:

“His name’s not Joe, he’s not a plumber, and he doesn’t live in the new Ninth District… In other words, he’s the perfect Republican candidate.”

During the last few years Wurzelbacher has written a book and has been traveling the Tea Party circuit to talk at rallies. He told a crowd in Nevada last year:

“Being a politician is as good as being a weatherman. You don’t have to be right, you don’t have to do your job well, but you’ll still have a job.”

Is that what Joe the Plumber is seeking? A job that he doesn’t have to be good at?