Here is an interview with the Democrats new nominee for US Senate in South Carolina, Alvin Greene.
YouTube - Alvin Greene
YouTube - Alvin Greene
Strongbow, Strongbow...well aren't you busy busy with new topics lately.
Time to change the subject from Israel? Not going quite as well as it should there in that thread now is it.
Whatever keeps us from talking about BP and the Gulf, yes?
Strongbow, Strongbow...well aren't you busy busy with new topics lately.
Time to change the subject from Israel? Not going quite as well as it should there in that thread now is it.
Whatever keeps us from talking about BP and the Gulf, yes?
Something's very strange about the whole thing, both sides are investigating if he's a plant
I'm sorry I did not start a thread about Strongbow since that is clearly what your interested in.
How could a "plant" become the Democrats nominee for one of South Carolina's two Senate seats?
What do you mean? You get enough people to register knowing they are going to vote for this person and he's the new nominee. It wouldn't be that difficult if you knew the primary voting patterns and there wasn't tough competition.
How Did Alvin Greene Win In South Carolina?
June 10, 2010
Perhaps the strangest upset in Tuesday's primaries is the case of Alvin Greene of South Carolina. Greene beat out former legislator Vic Rawl to become the state's Democratic Senate candidate. And Greene did it without advertisements, a website or even yard signs. Since his win, the state's Democratic Party chairman has called for him to step down after it was revealed that he faces felony obscenity charges. And there are allegations that Greene is a GOP plant. Melissa Block speaks with Dick Harpootlian, the former chair of South Carolina's Democratic Party, about Greene and South Carolina politics.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
Lots of questions are being raised in South Carolina after a bizarre turn in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.
Alvin Greene came from out of the blue to win that primary. He's an unemployed veteran who didn't have a website or buy a single campaign sign.
After he won, it emerged that he was arrested in November and faces a felony charge of showing a pornographic website to a college student at a computer lab. And Greene has acknowledged that he was involuntarily, though honorably, discharged both from the Air Force and the Army.
The state Democratic Party has asked Greene to quit the race. He has refused. Now joining us to try to explain what happened is Richard Harpootlian, former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, now a lawyer in private practice. Welcome to the program.
Mr. RICHARD HARPOOTLIAN (Former Chair, South Carolina Democratic Party): Thank you.
BLOCK: Let's explain here. The unemployed vet who won, Alvin Greene, was running against Vic Rawl, former state legislator, former judge, he had a lot of cash. Alvin Greene gets 60 percent of the vote. This is a guy who had no campaign, was a complete unknown. How did he do it?
Mr. HARPOOTLIAN: Well, I think it's a pretty simple explanation. G comes before R. Neither one of these guys was known. If you're going down the ballot, and you see two people, and you don't know either one, you know, you either don't vote in the race, or you go alphabetically. That's the only explanation I can come up with.
BLOCK: Do you believe that there is also something more nefarious going on here? The South Carolina congressman, James Clyburn, has said he thinks shenanigans were at play, that Greene was somebody's plant. He said it just doesn't add up that an unemployed guy paid $10,000, the registration fee, to run for the U.S. Senate.
Mr. HARPOOTLIAN: Well, I mean, we've had this happen before. The most graphic example, when I was the district attorney in 1992, I prosecuted a Republican operative who used campaign money from his sister's campaign for lieutenant governor to pay the filing fee for an unemployed African-American shrimp fisherman out on bond for selling cocaine, to run against Arthur Ravenel, the congressman in Charleston. The idea that if Ravenel had an African-American run against him in a Republican primary down there, it would increase the turnout in that area, which would help this guy's sister, who was from down there.
Of course, it didn't. It was a stupid thing to do. I prosecuted her brother and convicted him.
BLOCK: Well, that happened in the past. Is there any sign that that has happened this time around?
Mr. HARPOOTLIAN: Well, I mean, we got some tell-tale signs here that raise questions. One is this guy is out on bond. I've learned today that he has been appointed a public defender, which means back in November, when he was arrested, he filled out an affidavit of indigency, saying I don't have any money. I can't afford a lawyer. Yet in March, he comes up with $10,400 to file for the United States Senate.
I mean, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong there. I'm just saying that raises a question. And my sources indicate to me that the DA is going to have this man brought into court and find out if he can afford $10,000 to file for office, why can't he find $10,000 to hire a lawyer rather than relying on the taxpayers to provide one?
BLOCK: Can we review some recent political history in South Carolina? You've got Governor Mark Sanford, who of course hiked the Appalachian Trail all the way down to Argentina.
(Soundbite of laughter)
BLOCK: You just had the woman who is running to replace him, Nikki Haley, being accused of infidelity and disparaged as a rag-head in her campaign. What's in the water down there in South Carolina?
Mr. HARPOOTLIAN: And then, of course, we have a guy who apparently is accused of showing obscene matter to young people. I mean, I guess one of the things you say is he probably fits in with the political class down here with that charge.
You know, and to give you the full picture, the state treasurer -Republican state treasurer a few years ago was convicted of distributing cocaine, went to jail. The state Republican commissioner of Agriculture was convicted of taking bribes on cockfights, and went to jail.
So, I mean, it's like a bad soap opera. It's funny in some ways but very sad because all of this distracts from the realization and the reality that we face in South Carolina every day, which is we're 50th in education, we're 50th in every measure of health care, we're 50th in quality of life. And that's not going to change until our political leadership changes, and with this kind of frivolity and shenanigans, it never will.
BLOCK: Well, Richard Harpootlian, it's good to talk to you. Thanks so much.
Mr. HARPOOTLIAN: Take care. Sure, bye-bye.
BLOCK: Richard Harpootlian is former chair of South Carolina's Democratic Party.
Mr. HARPOOTLIAN: Well, I think it's a pretty simple explanation. G comes before R. Neither one of these guys was known. If you're going down the ballot, and you see two people, and you don't know either one, you know, you either don't vote in the race, or you go alphabetically. That's the only explanation I can come up with.
It does make you question the average voter, who clearly doesn't pay attention to an election unless large amounts of money are spent on a flashy ad campaign. And so it doesn't mean that the "best" candidate is nominated, per se; just the wealthiest. Absent wealth, it appears to be the candidate with the highest alphabetical ballot placement, as they say.
Keith Olbermann said the other night that despite all the controversy, he'd still vote for Greene over Demint. So rather than having a competent and articulate Senator whom he simply disagrees with on issues, KO would take an unemployed felonious pervert who can't string two sentences together- and to my knowledge hasn't in any way articulated what he believes in- just because he's a Democrat. That's pretty worrisome, and unfortunately I'm sure Olbermann's not alone.
Here is another interview of the Democrats new nominee for the US Senate from South Carolina, Alvin Greene!
Here is another interview of the Democrats new nominee
Implying that Democrats are eager to nominate felonious, unemployed individuals is a cheap argument.
Keith Olbermann said the other night that despite all the controversy, he'd still vote for Greene over Demint. So rather than having a competent and articulate Senator whom he simply disagrees with on issues, KO would take an unemployed felonious pervert who can't string two sentences together- and to my knowledge hasn't in any way articulated what he believes in- just because he's a Democrat. That's pretty worrisome, and unfortunately I'm sure Olbermann's not alone.
LOL, BVS.
Isn't DeMint the guy who yelled, "YOU LIE!" at Obama during his address to Congress last year? Doesn't exactly scream "competent" and "articulate" to me, more like "rude" and "immature".
No, that was Joe Wilson, but they're in the same league, no doubt.
DeMint has blurted out such crap as "Obama is responsible for terrorism" and has said many times that openly gay people, as well as couples living together out of wedlock, should not be allowed to be educators.
He has routinely lied about Obama's record on terrorism, about the stimulus bill, health care, the list goes on.
DeMint blocked the Legislative Transparency And Accountability Act in 2007, legislation that McConnell and Reid were working on together. He criticized Obama for leaving the TSA directorate open in the wake of the Christmas Day Bomber, but it was he who single handedly was blocking that and a whole host of other nominations.
DeMint is a rookie Senator blow hard, nowhere near articulate, intelligent and well versed in the issues. He is consistently the go to guy for a sound byte or something way off the deep end to fire up the base. Thats about it. He is not taken seriously by say, Orrin Hatch or Chuck Grassley or Lamar Alexander or Judd Gregg or any other Republican with influence in the Senate.
As for Olbermann, just like BVS said, almost everyone here has no use for him. Keith, I used to love him on ESPN, was good when he started his show, but he and Maddow, along with the rest of MSNBC minus Matthews, have turned into screeching, unfair lunatics.
Would I vote for DeMint? No.
Greene? No again.
I would write in my own name, or BVS' name or 2861U2's name or Moonlight Angel's name and well, I wouldn't be alone in thinking that is the best option in South Carolina!
I fully agree you should never vote for someone simply because they tow the party line. Unfortunately South Carolina is facing the same problem many elections nowadays face-the lesser of two evils. And sometimes that explains why some people go along party lines. I'm not saying I agree with Olbermann here, mind you, because I don't-I'd actually be inclined to just not vote at all, much as it hurts me to say that, because this whole election just seems weird and not fully right and I wouldn't feel comfortable voting at all in that case. But for those who want to vote, well...
Still vote, you always want it to show up in the records as voted.
Write in your own name, and maybe if I and others do the same, you'll win.
Outside of that, the whole situation is just very, very, very strange, and that's about all I can say regarding it.
Yes, leave it to South Carolina.
Strongbow.
Who seems happier about this guy's election? The Democrats or Republicans?
Implying that Democrats are eager to nominate felonious, unemployed individuals is a cheap argument.
No, that was Joe Wilson, but they're in the same league, no doubt.
DeMint has blurted out such crap as "Obama is responsible for terrorism" and has said many times that openly gay people, as well as couples living together out of wedlock, should not be allowed to be educators.
He has routinely lied about Obama's record on terrorism, about the stimulus bill, health care, the list goes on.
DeMint blocked the Legislative Transparency And Accountability Act in 2007, legislation that McConnell and Reid were working on together. He criticized Obama for leaving the TSA directorate open in the wake of the Christmas Day Bomber, but it was he who single handedly was blocking that and a whole host of other nominations.[/B]
As for Olbermann, just like BVS said, almost everyone here has no use for him. Keith, I used to love him on ESPN, was good when he started his show, but he and Maddow, along with the rest of MSNBC minus Matthews, have turned into screeching, unfair lunatics.[/B]
Would I vote for DeMint? No.
Greene? No again.
I would write in my own name, or BVS' name or 2861U2's name or Moonlight Angel's name and well, I wouldn't be alone in thinking that is the best option in South Carolina!
Still vote, you always want it to show up in the records as voted.
Write in your own name, and maybe if I and others do the same, you'll win.
SC is about 50th in the country in education... they don't do homework.They should be held accountable for failing to do their homework.