The Talented Mr Greene

Not much time to write lately, for which I apologize. I will be a grandmother again in a matter of days, and I'm very busy and excited. (((grins delightedly)))

Sunday, I went for a hike and ended up sick as a dog. This is possibly another disturbing manifestation of weight loss and/or age, since I used to lap up the Carolina heat like some starved tropical flower... searing summer heat has always been something I've loved about the south. (Consequently, somewhat freaked out by my first episode of heat exhaustion.) It was in the high nineties, about 96 degrees when I came back inside around 3pm. I looked like I'd been doused in some mountain stream, I was sweating so much; terribly flushed, dizzy and had a monster-headache that lasted 8 whole hours.

No fun. No fun, my babe, no fun.

~*~

Alvin Greene, photo from... well, everywhere!



Blogging about the talented Mr Greene for the sake of several interested readers, as well as my man Mike, who wondered WHAT in the world is going on here in the South Carolina senate race. Yes, unlikely winner Alvin Greene is the man of the hour.

I didn't initially blog about this, since I didn't think I could add much to the comic proceedings.

Short version: A somewhat suspicious, taciturn person named Alvin Greene won the Democratic primary for Senate. A politician I respect (and there ain't many), Congressman Jim Clyburn, believes Greene is a "plant"--since nobody knows where he came from or where he got the money to pay the filing fee.

I tend to believe what Clyburn is saying, since he is in a better position than I am to figure out what is happening. Quoting above link:

"What is an unemployed guy doing paying $10,000 to run for the United States Senate? That just doesn't add up," Clyburn said of Greene, an unemployed military veteran who somehow came up with the $10,400 filing fee and decided to use it to mount an unlikely bid against conservative champion, Sen. Jim Demint. Greene ended up taking 59 percent of the vote despite his relative anonymity.

Clyburn went on to say that a U.S. attorney should examine the possibility that his limited campaign was improperly funded by outside political interests.

"I would hope the U.S. attorney down there would look at this," Clyburn said. "I think there's some federal laws being violated in this race...Somebody gave him that $10,000 and he who took it should be investigated, and he who gave it should be investigated."

The South Carolina Democratic party asked Greene to withdraw his Democratic nomination on Wednesday after it came out that he was facing a felony obscenity charge after allegedly showing inappropriate pictures to a college student last fall.

...

Clyburn gave an interview to Talking Points Memo later Thursday and pushed the issue further, saying that a potential probe by the U.S. Attorney's office should extend to two other African-American Democrats whom he believes may also be party impostors with ulterior motives.

"The party's choice in the 1st Congressional district lost. The party's choice for U.S. Senate lost. Sounds like a pattern to me," Clyburn told Talking Points Memo.

Apart from Greene, Clyburn alleged that Gregory Brown, who mounted an unsuccessful campaign against Clyburn for the 6th Congressional seat, and Ben Frasier, who triumphed over state Democratic party-backed candidate Robert Burton to become the nominee for the 1st Congressional district, were also plants.

Asked by Talking Points Memo about Clyburn's accusations, Burton campaign manager Ann Beser said that something was "radically wrong."

Am I worried that this man could win? Not at all. Are you kidding?

I have MET Jim DeMint, okay?

~*~

More links about the mysterious Mr Greene:

In South Carolina, Greene is mystery man despite winning Democratic Senate nod (Washington Post)

Was Joe Wilson’s Team Behind Alvin Greene? (Indigo Journal)

Who's Alvin Greene? State asks after vote (New York Times)

Group files complaint against mystery SC candidate (Charlotte Observer)

Alvin Greene, being there (Tommy's Table)

Bakari Kitwana on Alvin Greene (NewBlackMan)

Watchdog questions mysterious S.C. candidate Alvin Greene (USA TODAY)

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My other favorite theory is that people thought they were voting for AL GREEN. (Well, I certainly would have!)