According to recent polls, incumbent Senator Jim DeMint has already opened a wide lead over mumbling mystery Democrat Alvin Greene in the South Carolina Senate race. So that super-secret plan to "plant" a stealth nominee in the race so that DeMint could comfortably win re-election, as virtually everyone expected anyway, appears to be working!
The numbers: DeMint 58%, Greene 21%. The survey of likely voters has a ±4.5% margin of error. The poll also finds 62% of likely voters giving DeMint a favorable rating, with 25% unfavorable, compared to a 20%-51% rating for Greene.
So there you have it. The very conservative voters of a very conservative state will vote for the very conservative candidate. Nevertheless, Greene's primary opponent, Vic Rawl, has filed a protest to remove Greene as the Democratic candidate, paving the way for Rawl to be slaughtered by DeMint in November.
"This is really about the process and the integrity of the ballot in South Carolina," says Rawl campaign manager Walter Ludwig.
He says the campaign has received numerous complaints of voting irregularities. He fears there were failures in the electronic voting machines.
Now, both the Greene campaign and Rawl must appear before the Democratic Party's executive Committee. The party's communications director says the committee can void the results and order a new election. That hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
What's curiously missing from any news reports, at least as far as I've seen, is anyone from South Carolina who ever met Greene on the campaign trail in person. But one former Army colleague of Greene's spoke earlier today with Gawker's Adrian Chen, and describes Greene as being "not all there mentally" and chronically lazy:
Could you tell me a bit about your time working with Greene?
During the first couple of weeks of working with him, myself and most everyone else noticed that he wasn't all there mentally. Whenever he was given a simple task such as filling a temporary hand receipt it would never get done, mainly because he didn't know how to fill one out. And this is the most fundamental part of the job.
He also didn't show much interest in being a soldier. For instance, he was asked to do maintenance on the M249. This system is a little more complex than the regular service rifle. When it came to Greene's turn he was able to take the weapon apart but didn't know where to start when it came to put it back together. He showed no interest in learning and would mumble under his breath about not wanting to do it. So after a couple of months of trying and not getting anywhere, people just made sure he was where he was supposed to be and in the correct uniform. He would just basically come to work and stare at the wall till it was time for lunch and then do the same till it was time to go home for the day. The platoon sergeant tried to get him to go see a doctor for help but he would never seek help.
RELATED:
Poll: DeMint Leads Greene By 37 Points [TPMDC]
South Carolina Mystery Candidate Alvin Greene Was a Terrible Soldier [Gawker]
[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]