Posted by
Patrick Henry on Thursday, June 10, 2010 2:35:21 PM
Assuming from his name that he was some kind of environmentalist on steroids,
South Carolina Democrats cast their ballots for unemployed veteran Alvin Greene
instead of state lawmaker Vic Rawl to run against incumbent Republican Jim DeMint
for that state's senate seat. I mean, I can't think of any other possible reason to vote
for a man arrested for showing porn to a college co-ed and who doesn't even know
what TARP is.
But that's what they did. And the vote wasn't even close. Embarrassed by the
outcome, the state's Democratic party chair immediately asked Greene to step
aside, a request he curtly declined. Shortly thereafter, House Majority Whip
James Clyburn, also a South Carolinian and, like Greene, an African American,
said that "something fishy" was going on and that either the Republicans or some
other "outside group" had put Greene up to running.
Let's examine the phenomenon and the pathetic Democratic bleatings about foul
play for what they really are: the outcries of a disorganized, disheveled, desperate
party that, once again, was asleep at the wheel. State Democratic Chair Carol
Fowler argued that if voters had known about the porn incident they wouldn't
have voted for Greene. To that one might respond, "shame on them." Floridians
had no problem voting for Alcee Hastings, a judge defrocked for corruption. If
Dems supporting Rawl knew about Greene's background why didn't they make
their knowledge public? The answer? They didn't, or didn't care, or considered
the man so minor a threat that details of his background were irrelevant. How
disenchanted must SC Dem voters have been to pick an unknown nobody over
an elected legislator? Don't tell me it's not an anti-incumbent year.
And what of Clyburn's anguished cry of foul, and demand that a U.S. attorney
investigate who put Greene up to running and how an unemployed veteran paid
cash to get his name on the ballot? This is where the hypocrisy gets really ripe.
Greene may be unemployed, but he still presumably gets veteran's benefits, so
he's not penniless. Maybe he doesn't have any other debts or habits (except
buying porn to titillate co-eds) and saved up. And what if he was a plant? There
is no law against that. Democrats gave money to the campaign of Utah Tea Party
Favorite Sharron Angle because they thought she would be easiest for Harry Reid
to beat. Officials in Obama's White House tried to buy off Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania
and Andrew Romanoff in Colorado with promises of federal jobs. And that IS
against the law. But if some mischievous outside party did prod Greene into a run
and paid his entry fee, how would they be different from the SEIU and MoveOn.org
who supported and bankrolled Bill Halter in his failed bid to unseat Senator Blanche
Lincoln in Arkansas? If the U.S. attorney is going to investigate Greene, then there
are a slew of other Dems whose necks belong on the same block.
Most intriguing of all is that Greene has no staff and did very little campaigning.
That's how disorganized and disgraceful the Democratic party in South Carolina
is. One would think that if some mischief maker put Greene up to running, they
would at least have coached him in mounting some semblance of a campaign.
Now the Democratic Senatorial Campaign and the National Democratic party
will not return calls about the Greene incident nor, for that matter will they speak
to Greene himself. Undaunted, however, Greene says he looks forward to debating
Senator DeMint. Here's how such a scenario might play out.
Moderator: "Welcome to this debate, Mr. Greene. Tell us what you think about
TARP."
Greene: "Well, uh, I caught one of those in the bayou one time and it ate real good."
Moderator: "Hmmm. Well, what do you think of the President's handling of the BP
oil spill?"
Greene: "Duh, I think he should bomb England if they don't pay up."
Moderator: "I see. Majority Whip James Clyburn of the U.S. House of
Representatives says he suspects that you are a Republican plant. How do you
respond?"
Greene: "I ain't nobody's house plant. And if this Clyburn wants to get in my face
I'll show his butt some whip."
Moderator: "You have said that you want to put South Carolina back to work. Just
how do you plan to do that?
Greene: "Well, I'm gonna start by whuppin' DeMint in November, and that'll give
at least one South Carolina man a job: ME."
The most notable thing about this debate is that it will be entirely one-sided. DeMint
won't dignify it by even showing up, figuring that although Greene could non-campaign
himself into the Democratic nomination, he'll have no problem at all campaigning
himself out of the senate seat and into the annals of political obscurity.
A little humor at the Dumbocrats' expense never hurt anyone. And the sad fact is that
some of them will probably actually vote for Greene in November. If they ever
deserved to be the butt of a national joke, the time is now. Greene doesn't have much
of a vocabulary. But to be a Democratic legislator you only need to know two words:
TAX and SPEND. Here's to Alvin Greene and other senatorial candidates destined to
share his fate. Live long and go away!