Dressed in blue jeans and a plaid flannel shirt, Samuel Joseph "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher encouraged conservatives gathered in Utah's Capitol on Wednesday to ask straight questions and hold their elected representatives accountable.
The plain-spoken tradesman turned political pundit from Holland, Ohio, is in the Beehive State this week stumping for Cherilyn Eagar, a U.S. Senate candidate who hopes to give three-term incumbent Bob Bennett the boot.
"Freedom means one thing to me," Wurzelbacher told the crowd of about 80 gathered in the Capitol's rotunda. "It means responsibility."
The 35-year-old activist described himself as an American and a Christian but eschewed all other labels.
"I don't like abortion," he said. "I like guns and I want more. I don't like same-sex marriage. In America, I'm allowed to have those opinions, to talk about them and should not be chastised for them."
In an earlier speech, he told a southern Utah audience that he believes "political correctness has strangled the American spirit."
Wurzelbacher also spoke against the federal government overstepping its bounds and infringing on states rights.
In a brief interview following the speech, he acknowledged that he went on welfare during his stint in the U.S. Air Force because he didn't make enough to support his family.
"It was a bridge until I made next rank," Wurzelbacher said.
But he blasted liberals for "taking from the haves and giving to the have nots." He said liberals "mock what our country stands for."
Wednesday was the second day of Wurzelbacher's Utah swing, following an appearance Tuesday in St. George, where he attracted a smaller crowd of about two dozen people.
Eagar, a resident of Holladay, has been endorsed by the conservative Eagle Forum. She fought against the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and for the successful passage of the recent Proposition 8 in California that banned same-sex marriage. Eagar said it is time to "flush the toilet in Washington."
She said voters have a chance next year to change the composition of Congress for the better.
"We need a sea change in Congress," she said. "We need to find rookie candidates not drunk on the Potomac poison."
Bennett's office declined comment on the remarks of Eagar or Wurzelbacher.
For more on Cherilyn Eagar's campaign swing through Utah this week with "Joe the plumber," go to eagar4senate.com.
