Time to Crash and Burn

All the talk about Jim Demint being a kingmaker makes me chuckle.  He's got loads of money, especially since his Watergate-style minions have been able to fix the primaries so that he doesn't have to run for re-election, and he's not afraid to say whatever's on his mind, and with conviction.

But the secret to his success is that he NEVER HAS TO FACE HIS OPPONENT.  From speaking on an empty Senate floor, to nasty anti-American sound-bites in front of a crazed Tea Party crowd, he has been able to pretty much have his image molded for him.  I say, "for him" because despite his advertising background, I don't think he's that swift with the pen.

I remember the good old days when Inez Tenenbaum was making him defend his faux-Christian right-wingnut positions.  I would never get tired of hearing him talk about not allowing a pregnant single woman to teach for fear she would influence our children.

But six years ago, the smaller Bush and Mark Sanford had only just begun to wreak havoc on our lives, and the dream of living high without paying taxes was very appealing to our electorate, and so he became Senator Demint.

Since then, he has made us proud by being featured on The Daily Show as South Carolina's "colorful socialist-fearing, Erkel-quoting Senator Demint".

Yes, Jim Demint is pretty darned sharp when it comes to quoting Erkel, and he can give you the plot line of nearly all of the episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, but don't think for one minute that that proves his intelligence.  When he is not reading from a speech, his sentences meander around words like "freedom" and "free-market" which tend to pop up with both irrelevance and irreverence.

I hate to say it, but Jim Demint sounds like a product of an inadequately funded education system.

He's also managed to alienate the real republicans in his party, with his megalomaniacal plan to seed the Senate with crazies who share his own psychosis, figuring that he has pretty much bought and paid for them.

But in the real world, Opie doesn't always win the fight, or get Andy's approval.  The media may be enjoying the tantalizingly creepy sound of "Jim Demint, Kingmaker", but face it,  if you take a close, more analytical look at the races, bullying his way into a state's primaries with a ton of money didn't get him all that much in terms of results.

He's bragging about republicans on the Hill asking him for favors in 2012, but I'm betting by then he'll be as much in demand as the smaller Bush was during the campaign of '08.

Where In the World Is Alvin Greene?

Haven't heard much from Alvin Greene.  He hasn't answered either of my emails, one of which included a link to this blog, when I was still writing about him, but that's not unusual for a Democrat.  They are usually too busy fighting the good fight to realize how important it is to acknowledge a potential voter and constituent who has actually contacted them.

But he also hasn't taken advantage of the national stage, people who love to highlight the underdog, and believe me, Alvin Greene is the underdog of all underdogs.  His publicity organization, who were to provide their services pro bono, have also been silent.  Couldn't even find them on the internet to thank them for taking up this fight.

Apparently he has turned up at a meeting of the State Democratic Party, but nearly had to be dragged up to the podium, at which time he had no prepared remarks.

Now, I don't believe Greene is dumb, as some do.  He may not be a genius, but jeez, have you taken a look at our Senate lately?

My first impressions about Greene were that he was a Republican set-up.  Slipped $10,000 to get his name on the primary ballot against a legitimate candidate.  And then, with the help of the Neanderthal primary voting rules in this fair state, which allow us all to vote for the least appealing of the opposing party's candidates, and no doubt some plain old poll-booth tinkering, voila!  The mysterious Alvin Greene, with the added bonus of Jon Stewart getting to thank South Carolina once again for our comedic flair, this time for the stupidity of its voters.  

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-14-2010/alvin-greene-wins-south-carolina-primary 

But, you know, Jim Demint is really despicable.  So I decided to take a long, hard look at Alvin Greene.  Since that wasn't possible, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.  That story goes like this:

A young, naive but idealistic young man saves every penny he earns while in the military (while also bucking some military authority, also because of his ideals), so he can help his friends and neighbors back home, and yes, his country, by running for office.


You don't have to be terribly astute politically to know how bad Jim Demint has been for South Carolina, so, encouraged by his church and family, he took that nest egg and used it to run in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.  And, because Vic Rawl, also running on a shoestring despite his long list of credentials, had a name that begins with "R", Greene was able to walk away with his name on the ballot for November.


Hard to believe, isn't it?


Yes, I have to admit, it is harder to believe than Greene being a shill for the republicans, and understanding that he needs to try, but not too hard, so that it will seem like he is really running for office.

Meanwhile, Jim Demint doesn't even have to give the appearance of running a campaign, which frees him up to use his substantial PAC dollars to help elect other radical extremist right-wing fanatics to office across the country.

So, let me just conclude with this:

Don't let Demint's thugs get away with this.  Vote for Alvin Greene in November.


Because, regardless of how it came about,

Alvin Greene

because he's

Better than Demint!