poster boy

Patrick Ruffini writing at The Next Right:

It could have been like any other of the hundreds of pieces I had seen in the last few months touting Joe's latest exploits. Joe the Plumber -- a one or two day campaign gimmick -- has become a poster boy for conservatism. To say that the McCain campaign milked Joe Wurzelbacher's story and then some would be the understatement of the century. Now, conservatives are making him a foreign war correspondent and he is sure to be feted at CPAC -- so I'm sure to get a certain amount of grief for what I'm writing now.

If you want to get a sense of how unserious and ungrounded most Americans think the Republican Party is, look no further than how conservatives elevate Joe the Plumber as a spokesman. The movement has become so gimmick-driven that Wurzelbacher will be a conservative hero long after people have forgotten what his legitimate policy beef with Obama was.

Joe the Plumber is a gimmick – period. The conservatives keep touting him out like some poster child for their movement, while rest of America views him as a joke. But like everything else with the Republican Party, they expect the American people to drink their Kool aide and idolize Joe. Again – the Republican Party is banking on America being a nation of idiots. When you bank against America you will lose, and if the Republicans want to regain any ground in our nation they need to realize that. Using gimmicks like Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and Joe the Plumber won’t do it.

This guy just makes it too easy:

Montana Sen. Conrad Burns (news, bio, voting record), a Republican in a tight re-election race, flew on a private plane chartered by Vonage Holdings Corp. just days after he pushed legislation that the company has advocated for more than a year.

Burns accompanied Vonage lobbyist Frank Cavaliere on the company's chartered plane to and from the "13th Annual Burns Classic Golf Weekend" in Bigfork, Mont., on Saturday. Cavaliere and a Burns spokesman both confirmed the plane trip to The Associated Press on Monday.

Campaign finance rules allow members of Congress to fly on corporate aircraft as long as they reimburse the company for the equivalent of first-class airfare. Jason Klindt, a spokesman for Burns, said the flight was arranged in August and the senator will reimburse the company.

The fundraiser was held two days after the Senate passed a Burns-sponsored amendment that was pushed in various forms by Vonage and several public safety groups. The amendment was added to a port security bill that the Senate approved 98-0 last Thursday.

Go Tester!!!