Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher was just an ordinary guy living in Toledo when overnight he became the darling of the GOP after sparring with then-presidential hopeful Barack Obama in 2008. After riding a gravy train of Fox News appearances, stumping and a political run of his own, he's now back to being an ordinary Toledoan — working at Chrysler.
As you might remember, "Joe the Plumber" wasn't actually a licensed plumber, but did hold a variety of odd jobs following his 2008 run-in with Obama. Sometime this month, he posted on Facebook that he began working at "Chrysler Corporation," apparently unaware that his new employer is now named Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
If you're not familiar with Toledo, it's where Chrysler builds the Jeep Wrangler and Cherokee. Wurzelbacher didn't say what he's doing with Chrysler now, but says he's been given shit from other co-workers because of his political history, which includes stances against the types of unions he's now required to be a member of if he wants employment:
"In order to work for Chrysler, you are required to join the Union, in this case UAW. There's no choice – it's a union shop – the employees voted to have it that way and in America that's the way it is," he wrote.
"I had three days of orientation, and now I'm "on the job" over here at Chrysler and on Day 4, I'm outside on a break smoking a cigarette and right on cue – some guy calls me a 'teabagger,'" he said.
"Yes, I have a website that puts out conservative news. Yes, I am part owner of a gun company. Yes, I'm a Republican who was cast into the limelight for having the temerity to confront Barack Obama on the question of redistributing wealth… But I'm a working man and I'm working," he wrote.
Wurzelbacher last made headlines when he ran for a congressional seat in Ohio, which he lost. But before that, he had this to say at an anti-union rally against Wisconsin state employees seeking collective bargaining rights: "Unions don't deserve anything, you don't deserve anything, you work for it yourself!"
His stance on unions has lightened, apparently. "Private unions, such as the UAW, is a choice between employees and employers. If that is what they want then who am I to say you can't have it?" he wrote on Facebook.
Photo via AP