Joe the Congressman?

Files for candidacy in Ohio

(NEWSER) - With all eyes on the 2012 presidential election, a familiar face from 2008 has returned: Joe the Plumber is set to run for Congress, Capital New York reports. Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher has filed a statement of candidacy and established a congressional campaign committee. He is seeking Ohio's 9th district seat, held since 1983 by Democrat Marcia Kaptur. And it looks like he's sticking with his well-known nickname: His FEC filing is titled " Joe for Congress 2012 ." More»

Americans aren't undecided, and the public option was DOA: Cillizza

(NEWSER) - With health care reform seemingly headed for passage now that Bart Stupak's on board, Chris Cillizza looks back at the debate and finds five persistent arguments with little or no grounding in reality.

• Scott Brown was a game-changer: "Yes and no," Cillizza writes for the Washington Post . Lacking a supermajority, the Democrats have had to tread carefully, "but the meat of the bill—an attempt at broad reform—never really changed"

Wurzelbacher says the candidate used him during campaign

(NEWSER) - Don't expect to see Joe the Plumber on the campaign trail for John McCain anytime soon. "I don't owe him shit," Joe Wurzelbacher told an audience in Pennsylvania this week. "He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it." Wurzelbacher said the McCain camp used him as a "ploy" because he "happened to be the face of middle Americans." He also no longer supports Sarah Palin—because she's going to campaign for McCain. More»

Graham calls Arizona senator 'de facto leader of the Republican Party'

(NEWSER) - John McCain has made the transformation from possible Obama ally to a full-blooded Republican partisan, though insiders aren’t quite sure why. Some see his vocal opposition to the Obama administration’s policies as a concession to the realities of next year’s election, where he may face a challenge from the right. Friend Lindsey Graham paints McCain’s outrage as common sense. “What would have been a change was if he wasn’t pissed off,” he tells Politico . More»

(NEWSER) - One of Barack Obama's top advisers during the campaign tells Politico he's "losing patience" with the White House and wants more "bold" leadership from the president on a host of issues including health care and gay rights. “I’m not going to just sit by the curb and let these folks get away with a lack of performance for the American people,” says Steve Hildebrand, the campaign's deputy manager who helped engineer key wins in Iowa and South Carolina. More»