Tito, My Tito
Obviously, the big draw in Leesburg this morning was Tito the Builder, aka Tito Munoz, aka defended of Joe the Plumber. If you had ever wanted to hear a crowd of Northern Virginian White People chant "Tito! Tito! Tito!" who weren't looking for a Jackson brother encore, well, you missed your chance. But I managed to grab a few minutes with the guy after the crowds departed -- after he finished posing for pictures and signing bumperstickers -- and he was perhaps the most articulate and on-message McCain spokesman I've ever talked to that is still talking to the press. Transcript after the jump. I've sent the audio to HQ to see if they can post it as well.
He as actually quite thoughtful and, despite his "Solinksy" bumpersticker, apparently pretty well-informed. At least about Joe the Plumber. His views on Constitutional issues were, while not standard, passionately presented. His views on plumbing were all of the above:
I have a construction license. I do heavy construction. I do a lot of piping work. Sewer pipe. But I don't need a plumbing license to do the work. So you guys are going to extremes to silence a person and I think that's dangerous to do because you are stealing my first amendment.
UPDATE: Audio here.
We join Tito in mid-interview...
Tito: The principles of Adams, the principles of Madison, the principles of Jefferson. Those principles are the foundation of this nation
Local TV Reporter: What are those principles?
The principles of freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. All to the individual... not to the community, and not to the individual being a part of the community
[Spanish]
Me: How did you get here today? When did the campaign contact you?
Tito: Well, uhm, I saw the -- are you a reporter too?
Me: Ana, hi, with Time Magazine.
Tito: Ah! What has happen is, I think, most of the media has been a little, kind of biased, and in that regard I thought that going after Joe the Plumbers' personality or his life was something shameful from the media. I think that was something you guys shouldn't have done. Because Joe the Plumber is not going to be our president. Joe the Plumber is just going to be Joe the Plumber. Just like me, I'm going to be "Tito the construction guy." I'm not going to be running the country. McCain and Obama are going to be running the country.
But the media was a little hard on finding details to destroy his life. And that reminds me of Chavez. That reminds me of what Chavez does in Venezuela. And that reminds me of how Chavez uses the media in Venezuela to attack his opposition and it also reminds me of the way Chavez controls his propaganda to control the power and it also reminds me of the Obama campaign. And it also reminds me of Congressmen like Murtha who is telling people that they are racist. That's not right. That is sometimes the same message Chavez uses in Venezuela with the ethnicity and the indigenous population and the colored people there. And I think that's very dangerous when a politician uses those clashes in order to accomplish a goal which is the power. And we the people cannot let when he uses and manipulates the system in order to maintain the ultimate power which is everything.
Me: So, did you contact the campaign or did they contact you?
Tito: Well I told them that I would support Sen. McCain in whatever they need me and they have asked me a couple of things to help and I am going to help as much as I can.
Me: I saw your interaction with the reporter from Mother Jones
Tito: With David Corn
Me: I've had a couple of fights with David Corn myself. How do you think that went?
Tito: I don't know, because I did not see the video. I did not know what he would write. But I will tell you something. People... I am not an intellectual. I am not an intellectual. I am not a bureaucrat. I am not also an elitist. I am just a hardworking person who believes in America and who believes in the American dream. And for that I want nothing less for me than for any other person in the way that some people who has quote-unquote a degree in a particular science thinks about a construction worker or thinks about Joe the Plumber and they diminish the person to a point which is not good. That is something people should not do..
Me: You talked about how rights are something the government cannot take away.
Tito: Correct. Because what happens is if the media attack an individual like Joe the Plumber, and the individual cannot ask a question, because be of the feeling he has of being exposed to all this scrutiny then what you guys are doing is inflicting in our First Amendment, meaning that we will lose our First Amendment -- you guys are oppressing our ability to ask a question when we are not relevant in the game or in the politics. When we are just citizens. And that is something you guys have to look at in a different perspective. Because the way you have to act is, you know, impartial, and being going to the point which is: it's Obama, it's John McCain, it's not me, it's not Joe the Plumber, it's not anybody else
British reporter guy: You said you met John McCain at a rally
Tito: I didn't meet him. I went to the rally, I dressed like this, I had a construction worker sign and they put me in the background
Mike Madden, Salon: Just when you got there, they said, come stand in the background?
Tito: Yes, come stand in the background And then I when I finished and talked to the media because I was very angry with the media... one of the questions is: what is relevant that Joe the Plumber has a license. Do you know about licenses? Do you know? You first have to find out about us. You have find out if he really needs a license to do the work or he doesn't.
I have a construction license. I do heavy construction. I do a lot of piping work. Sewer pipe. But I don't need a plumbing license to do the work. So you guys are going to extremes to silence a person and I think that's dangerous to do because you are stealing my First Amendment.
-
26
Ana let me know when you run into someone called Tammy the truth teller. Until then, I would appreciate airquotes around anything you say about or on behalf of the McCAin campaign.
-
27
Giant airquotes around everything?
.
Personally, Ana, I'd prefer to read about your fight with David Corn. What was it about and who won? -
28
Let the record reflect that AMC referred to this as 'articulate'
-
Soft bigotry of low expectations. -
29
The problem I see in this election is all of the hype about absolutely nothing of any serious nature from both parties. I am for one, very very disgusted, and find voting in this election to be the lesser of two evils. The lesser of the two evils is John McCain. The press, including this site have all failed the American voter. Barack Obama has not been clearly vetted, and the hard issues and his views on those issues have gone un-reported in favor of Joe the Plumber, and now the AMC idol, Tito. Thanks for nothing AMC.
-
30
Tito the Builder is my son's favorite show. He likes the talking hammer.
-
31
Aside from the understandable grammatical errors - I didn't listen to the audio but I assume English is his second language - he actually did make more sophisticated arguments than most McCain surrogates. He's right of course about the unfortunate consequences of the media's tendency to attack the character of anyone who suddenly becomes famous for any reason. (The Daily Show did a funny segment on that aspect of the Joe the Plumber episode) The whole plumbing license thing is also fair. And while the Chavez comparisons were ridiculous, it was actually a better argument than many of the arguments McCain surrogates are advancing.
-
32
If regurgitating a bunch of wingnut spin is articulate, this guy's the tops. Wow. Blaming the poor MSM for putting Sam-not-the-plumber who was NOT trying to buy a business that was NOT for sale (breath) on the spot when McCain started taking this run of the mill Bee Esser's name in vain without even giving the poor sot a heads-up? Uh-huh…
Ana, did anyone ask Tito if he was aware that Sam-not-the-plumber will get a tax break under Obama?
-
33
Disgusted
.
People walk away from paychecks rather than read smear robocalls.
.
Damn. No preview. If it fails just go to TPM. -
34
i would say something pertinent and articulate myself, but I'm still too miffed with the new format.
.
If it was a 'server crash', why not simply restore the format that by common agreement was working so well before? There seems little point in forcing all points through the moderation machine if it kills real-time debate.
.
The success of the Swamp was precisely that you could interact with the discussion - effectively, it worked more like a message board and less like a blog. Of course, most of the corporate entities - CNN, NYT, Fox - run a moderation format. This format tends to mean that posters simply make stand-alone statements, because nothing happens in real-time. There is little or no flow.
.
The corporates like the moderated format because it restores greater control over the discussions. Looks like Joe K got an answer to his call for more respect for Time bloggers. A dumb blog post is now, quite literally, beyond criticism. -
35
It's so lame that team McCain has to use JTP and now TTB as examples of "real" americans so their supporters can actually grasp how McCain's platform may effect them. Aren't these people capable of reflecting on their own lives, beliefs, positions and finances and assimilating what the platform would do for them? Must they have a character, story and plot to watch in order to relate? McCain platform spoiler alert: The guy doesn't get the job or the girl and lives happily never after.
-
36
"Tito the Builder is my son's favorite show. He likes the talking hammer."
.
Isn't that Handy Manny? -
37
I feel for AMC.
I am not only being moderated, I have lost my name.
Actually, it's worse than that.
WordPress informs me that my username is invalid. Not only that, but my password doesn't recognize me anymore either. I have been invalidated, and they changed the secret handshake while I was in the kitchen making jello shots.
I feel like such a loser.
I'm pretty sure that a $150,000 new wardrobe would make me feel much more confident.
I'm willing to bet that AMC also shares this sentiment.
And Tito, too.
-
38
piero- you forgot 'not joe' and 'not paying more taxes under Obama's plan'. If only fake America could be as artificial as real America, this country could finally find some common ground!
-
39
No, actually, let the record show that this is "news"--some days it takes a real concerted effort to find anything worth responding to. Thank god I always have my untempered contempt to fall back on. Please, Ana, sort through the lint in your belly button and post your thoughts.
-
40
By all means, let's have a parade of "regular" folk instead of talking about tax policy. At least the folks on Project Runway know something about fashion.
-
41
I should repost this once per thread:
As a public service, I've just uploaded screenshots of where you need to go in order to alter your screen-name in WordPress.
Find them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phd9/2978093757/
and here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phd9/2978964242/Go to My Account - edit Profile
Name
Username phd9 Your username cannot be changed
First name
Last name
Nickname Paul Dirks
Display name publicly as Paul Dirks -
42
Many thanks, Paul. I tried to help demwoman yesterday but my instructions reeked.
-
43
I think it is Handy Manny.
My favorite episode of the "Tito the Builder" is the one where Tito gets fooled into stumping around the country making an ass out of himself for a couple of weeks. Then a month later, everyone is saying "who the hell is Tito the Builder"?
I think we all learned an important lesson from that episdoe: It's ridiculous to put special emphasis on what some "everyman" thinks, because we're all "everymen" and we all think too.
-
44
I'm going to be very suspicious if names like john1958 get changed to SkatRBoy16.
-
45
Paul Dirks should win the Nobel Prize for tech support
-
46
# pa56independent Says:
October 27th, 2008 at 7:02 pmThe problem I see in this election is all of the hype about absolutely nothing of any serious nature from both parties. I am for one, very very disgusted, and find voting in this election to be the lesser of two evils. The lesser of the two evils is John McCain. The press, including this site have all failed the American voter. Barack Obama has not been clearly vetted, and the hard issues and his views on those issues have gone un-reported in favor of Joe the Plumber, and now the AMC idol, Tito. Thanks for nothing AMC.
pa56independent--how, exactly, has Obama not been vetted? What views of his have not been reported?
-
47
let's try this again...
.
# pa56independent Says:
October 27th, 2008 at 7:02 pmThe problem I see in this election is all of the hype about absolutely nothing of any serious nature from both parties. I am for one, very very disgusted, and find voting in this election to be the lesser of two evils. The lesser of the two evils is John McCain. The press, including this site have all failed the American voter. Barack Obama has not been clearly vetted, and the hard issues and his views on those issues have gone un-reported in favor of Joe the Plumber, and now the AMC idol, Tito. Thanks for nothing AMC.
.pa56independent--how, exactly, has Obama not been vetted? What views of his have not been reported?
-
48
Yes I'd like to hear the answer to that as well Shakespeare.
pa56independent?
-
49
My comment vanished into the ether (maybe?). Not that it was so brilliant as to deserve immortality.
.
Man, I'll be glad when this election is over.
.
pa56independent: Colin Powell seems to think otherwise. -
50
Hey Anna Marie:
Can you alert the other swamplanders about this story at TPM? The script of the McCain/Palin must have been pretty bad for dozens of people to walk out rather than get paid to call voters and recite it!
- TIME Why it's time to give up the ghost on Bin Laden | http://su.pr/9KGpBa - 1 hour ago
- TIME See Facebook's secret code | http://su.pr/2C8sAt - 3 hours ago
- TIME See the top 10 movies of 2009 | http://su.pr/21qEh7 - 4 hours ago
Most Popular »
- Best of the Decade: Sci-Fi Movies
- "How Will Dave Ever Make Fun of Sex Scandals Again?"
- Is Harry Reid Burning Out?
- How Will Obama Pay For Stimulus 2.1? (or 3.0, 3.1, whatever you want to call it)
- Why Wells Fargo isn't paying back TARP
- CNN Poll: Man Made Global Warming Takes a Hit
- The Health Reform Abortion Wars, Part Deux
- War of the Supermen: Q&A With Matt Idelson
- Economists Growing More Wary of the Senate Health Bill
- Quinnipiac: Obama Gets Bump on Afghanistan
- The Truth Behind the Leaked Climate-Change E-Mails
- Mexico Witness Protection: Corrupt Program, New Killings
- Tiger Woods Must Face His Fans' Moral Outrage
- Helicopter Parents: The Backlash Against Overparenting
- Taiwan: World's Lowest Birthrate Could Affect Society
- Creating Jobs: Can Obama Government Boost Employment?
- How Strong Is the Evidence Against Amanda Knox?
- U.S. Doesn't Know Where bin Laden Is; Time to Let Go
- Suspect Headley: Pakistani Terrorist Group Going Global?
- Humanure: Goodbye, Toilets. Hello, Extreme Composting
Quotes of the Day »
RSS