Joe the Plumber on Pelosi: I Would "Beat the Livin' Tar" Out of Her

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.