Something in the Water

There must be something in the water down in South Carolina for so many politicians to have gone off the deep end. First there was Governor Mark Sanford hiking the Appalachian trail, then there was Rep. Joe Wilson shouting, "You lie!" at President Obama during an address to Congress, then there was Lieutenant Governor André Bauer comparing poor kids getting school lunches to stray animals, then there was State Senator Jake Knotts calling not just Obama but also GOP gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley a "raghead."

And now we have Alvin Greene, the official Democratic nominee to take on Senator Jim DeMint in the November election. He has no website, no campaign manager, no yard signs, no nothing - and somehow managed to get 59% of the vote in last week's primary. When he went on TV in the aftermath of his surprise win, Greene appeared to be drunk, on drugs, or otherwise out to lunch. It was so ridiculous that CNN's Don Lemon actually told Greene, "Honestly, you don't sound okay" and asked if he was "mentally sound."

Oh yes, and he's under investigation for allegedly showing porn to a student at the University of South Carolina. (As Jon Stewart pointed out, "Most senators don't sexually harass college girls until they get elected.")

This has become a complete circus, and the Democrats are crying foul. Greene, they insist, is not a real candidate but a Republican plant, designed to give DeMint a DOA opponent this fall. Possible, given the bare-knuckle nature of South Carolina politics, but that doesn't quite make sense.

After all, even if Greene is a barely-there front man, you'd think he would have done something to ensure his nomination. By all accounts, Greene did nothing - no campaigning, no voter outreach, no press interviews. All he did was put up the $10,000 filing fee - and even that's suspicious, considering that he's unemployed and lives in his father's basement. And even if he was a plant, nobody made Democratic voters pick him over "establishment" candidate Vic Rawl, who had everything Greene did not, starting with a website. Greene's only advantage appears to be that his name was listed first on the ballot.

So is this an example of Republican sabotage, a testament to the ignorance of South Carolina's electorate, or both? Rawl is fighting the primary result, ensuring that this story isn't going anywhere.