JOE THE PLUMBER SAYS YOU ONLY MOCKED HIS PRO-GUN ELLIOT RODGER POST BECAUSE YOU HATE THE TROOPS

I told you about Joe the Plumber's response to the Isla Vista murders last weekend: in a post that went viral (and not in a good way), Mr. Wurzelbacher informed Richard Martinez and other parents of Elliot Rodger's victims that he's pro-gun, dammit, and "your dead kids don't trump my Constitutional rights."

Wurzelbacher is now miffed that these words inspired a negative reaction -- so he's declaring that all his haters actually hate the troops:

Military Members Died Defending Our Rights, Will You Allow Their Sacrifice To Be Mocked

I wrote my "open letter" on the eve of Memorial day -- a day we honor the fallen heroes that defend and protect our rights.

These men and women that served and paid the ultimate price for our way of life were someone's dad, mom, brother, sister, or daughter. They made that sacrifice, which guarantees our freedoms because they believe in America. So I’m asking the question:

Why are the lives of these brave Americans less important than the victims of Elliot Rodger?

Because if the solution to this horrific incident is surrendering to the devious schemes of oppression; it nullifies the sacrifice of all Veterans. To infringe on our rights to bear arms would make a mockery of our fallen heroes who died defending our way of life....

Just for the record, the "your dead kids" post didn't include a single word about Memorial Day or veterans.

I'm not sure what the connection is, but Wurzelbacher has his non sequitur and he's sticking to it:

The killings are useful, the grieving an opportunity, the survivors are props in a staged circus of phony outrage, but with real people now damaged by the very policies the Marxists hope to arrange more of.

Don’t believe me? Look how the country has taken care of our veterans....

There follows the expected denunciation of the Veterans Administration in the Obama years -- you know, because there were no problems with veterans' health care during the pro-gun Bush admininstration (cough Walter Reed cough). There's also this:

Even when 90-year-old men in wheelchairs wish to visit the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. – a monument they built by trudging across Europe in their bare feet to kill Nazis, cramming into submarines in the South Pacific to hold off the invading Japanese, and staring down Rommel's tanks in Africa – they’re confronted with steel barricades, compliments of the Administration.

You may not realize this if you don't lurk in the right-o-sphere as much as I do, but this incident -- which took place during a government shutdown caused by Republicans -- took on Benghazi-like importance among the Fox News crowd for a while, and is still high on the list of enduring anti-Obama grievances for the right.

What any of this has to do with the murders in Isla Vista, I'm not sure. But if I don't get it, I guess it's because I hate America.

Wurzelbacher has a habit of impugning other people's patriotism by playing the "troops" card at inappropriate moments. Back in 2011, he unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Ohio against Marcy Kaptur. She repeatedly said that Wurzelbacher wasn't really a plumber -- and you can't blame her, because he wasn't actually licensed as a plumber in Ohio. According to Wurzelbacher, she did that because she hated the troops, as PolitiFact Ohio noted at the time:

That has prompted Wurzelbacher to claim that Kaptur is disrespecting his military service and training in the Air Force, showing disrespect for veterans.

Wurzelbacher plunged forward with that line of attack in a news release May 3 in which his campaign urged Kaptur to support a bill sponsored by Columbus-area GOP Rep. Steve Stivers, which would require states to consider military training when certifying truck drivers, registered nurses and emergency medical technicians. Stivers' bill would not affect plumbers. The news release charged that "Marcy has recently been attacking Joe's military service and his training in the Air Force."

In April 2012 RedState.com published a column by Wurzelbacher titled "Why Doesn't Marcy Kaptur Respect Veterans?" In his essay, Wurzelbacher said that Kaptur's proposal for a Veterans Jobs Corps to employ 20,000 veterans in projects to restore public lands, would reject their military training and instead "turn them into federally employed landscapers and groundskeepers."

"Kaptur and her campaign staff certainly don't respect my own military training," Wurzelbacher’s column continued. "That's obvious from the way they call me a 'faux' plumber. Are all our other veterans 'fake' in their jobs, too? Marcy's campaign has denied my military experience several times before, each time proving that she and her staff don’t respect veterans and our military experience."

Wurzelbacher's campaign put out a news release in October 2011 titled "Marcy Kaptur Disrespects Service of Military Veteran." Although Kaptur and her campaign spokesman Steve Fought hadn’t ever mentioned Wurzelbacher’s military record in questioning his lack of plumbing credentials, the news release accused the pair of "maligning" Wurzelbacher’s "record of military service and hard work." It said Wurzelbacher learned to be a plumber during a four year Air Force stint, and that he "legally worked as a plumber for numerous plumbing companies in the Toledo area" after leaving the military.

In a series of email exchanges, Wurzelbacher’s campaign did not provide instances in which Kaptur and Fought specifically maligned their candidate’s military service, apart from claiming that he isn't actually a plumber. They contend that by saying Wurzelbacher isn't a plumber, Fought and Kaptur are saying that his training is non-existent or inadequate. And because Wurzelbacher got that training in the Air Force, Wurzelbacher's camp contends that claiming Wurzelbacher isn’t a plumber constitutes an attack on his military training.

Last refuge of a scoundrel? Yup.