Joe Wurzelbacher, aka "Joe the Plumber", who rose to internet fame on the heels of a face to face confrontation with President Obama, has a counterpart on the left, his own second cousin, William G. Pulaski, a licensed plumber and aspiring left-wing media star.
But is anyone listening?
"I haven't reached that tipping point." Says Pulaski. "Even though my plumbing credentials far exceed Joe's. But I feel it. It's in the air. It's gonna happen."
Pulaski recently confronted Rep. John Boehner during a Town Meeting in Dayton, Ohio.
In a clip that has thus far failed to find widespread viral popularity, The Ohio Representative gave a factually incorrect and halting response to Pulaski's question on why the Republican party did not address the issue of deficit spending under the Bush administration. Said Boehner "When President Bush put his budget through, we tried to, uh, address the issue of deficits, but we were blocked by Nancy Pelosi." Pulaski quickly shot down the Boehner claim. "How did they block you? You were in the majority!" Boener, in the clip, ends the meeting abruptly and backs out of the room.
"That's his Macacca moment!" Pulaski exclaims, turning from the computer. "Where is Rachel Maddow! Where is Keith Olbermann! This is gold, I tell you, it's like finding the engagement ring in the drain trap! So where is the media!"
Pulaski's goal of inserting himself into the national discourse and grabbing his fifteen minutes of fame has been frustrated by a lack of aggressive, partisan reporting on behalf of the Democratic party. "There is no Democratic equivalent to Fox News." Pulaski opines. "The Right Wing Noise Machine is like a brand new, low flow toilet with a siphon jet. They get their message out of the bowl and into the septic tank very efficiently. MSNBC's efforts are a mess. Here's this perfect, concise clip that I dropped right in their bowl. I'm trying to flush it, trying to get it into the chute, but what happens? The trip lever won't lift the flapper ball and the refill tube is spraying all over the place."
Pulaski, who favors plumbing metaphors to communicate his ideas, seems to most frustrated with MSNBC. "They should be calling me! Why am I forced to call Olbermann's people? It's not enough that I drop this content right in their bowl? Now I've got to take off the lid and lift up the flapper valve manually? All they need is a couple of interns who could act as a lift chain, so creative people like me don't have to get our hands wet."
Pulaski points to the "VIEWS" counter on his youtube site: it reads "74". "Why is that number just sitting there? It's embarrassing. It stinks, frankly."
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