John McCain As Rodney Dangerfield

He can't get no respect! The man with the nom de guerre "Joe the Plumber" was a no show at a John McCain rally Thursday not helping Senator Walnut Cheeks on bit. CNN's The Situation Room reported the campaign had the crowd all hyped because Sam Wurzelbacher, aka "Joe the Plumber" was supposed to be in the audience. But he wasn't. In fact he was a complete no show because:

A) He canceled on the campaign and McCain's aides didn't get the news to Johnny Mac in time

B) The campaign never confirmed with Wurzelbacher about him being at the rally

Wurzelbacher, according to CNN, put it all on the McCain campaign, claiming they asked him about it, but never followed up. When the staff tried to fix things by arranging for Joe to attend a later rally, Wurzelbacher shut-in-down, miffed about his name being brought up at the earlier rally when he was not there. But all the kinks were worked out in the end, and Wurzelbacher and McCain eventually shared the stage for the same time.

Did I ever mention how insanely dumb I think all this Joe Plumber/Wurzelbacher stuff is? Never mind ...

Considering that Joe is doing everything from flacking (poorly) on FOX News for McCain to possibly cutting a country album, Joe is pimping his 15 minutes to the max.

“Joe” — aka Samuel Wurzelbacher, a Holland, Ohio, pipe-and-toilet man — just signed with a Nashville public relations and management firm to handle interview requests and media appearances, as well as create new career opportunities, including a shift out of the plumbing trade into stage and studio performances.

On Tuesday, Wurzelbacher joined country music artist and producer Aaron Tippin to form a new partnership that includes booking-management firm Bobby Roberts and publicity-management concern The Press Office to field the multiple media offers he’s received over the past few weeks. (Politico)

Whoo, boy, said Sarah Palin to herself, who's the diva now?

But Jon Stewart tried to warn his ol' friend Sen. John McCain about plucking random folks from obscurity and making them surrogates.