In South Carolina, you cannot hold a State office if you have a felony conviction on your record, but there is no such prohibition for a South Carolina Federal office. Of course, Mr. Green does not have a felony conviction, he has felony charges, of which he is innocent until proven guilty. One source indicated that he has not yet been indicted, so there is a ways to go in his court proceedings before a conviction is even possible. Of course he should be allowed to run. As he said, the people have chosen their candidate. If he were to win the election in November, which is unlikely since citizens outside the Democrat party will be voting in that one, and if he were subsequently convicted of a felony, the Senate could then remove him as unfit, if they so desire. In fact, the Senate could remove him at any time they deem him unfit to serve. I don't see why they would, since he is clearly the man SC Democrats want.

I doubt it the Obama administration will offer him a job not to run, they probably are shying away from that particular trick (crime) right now, but even if they were to consider it, they don't have a strong candidate to challenge Republican incumbent and tea party favorite, Jim Demint.

Having lived in South Carolina for ten years, and having heard Democrats nationwide continually bragging about how much smarter and more educated they are than their opponents, I can only shake my head and mumble "karma's a B*" All those super smart Democrat voters just nominated....well, Alvin Green, the new poster child for Democratic intelligence, sophistication, and morals.

I think the State and National party leaders need to get on board and support their party 's choice. As he mentions, he has no money, didn't run a campaign, no signs, no ads, no radio or TV, no endorsements, and yet those wise Democrat voters knew he was the best candidate to represent them in Washington. I'll buy that.

Who am I to disagree with the voters of the Democratic party in South Carolina? Surely they know better than I what kind of man is representative of South Carolina Democrats. After all, they belong to the intelligent and well educated party, or so we've been told, over and over.

South Carolina seems to be challenging Louisiana for most scandalous politicians crown; but, we've got them beat hands down.
Still, the scandal about Republican governor Mark Sanford's affair, the two separate infidelity claims about Republican candidate Nikki Haley, and now this guy, are a good start for amateurs.

This Alvin Greene is easily the strangest. Apparently he is just a random guy, an unemployed veteran, who plunked down the ten grand filing fee and never campaigned.

"The Columbia Free Times, an alternative weekly in the state capital, described the odd sequence leading up to Greene's filing: ''The candidate ... walked into the state Democratic Party headquarters in March with a personal check for $10,400. He said he wanted to become South Carolina's U.S. senator. Needless to say, Democratic Party chairwoman Carol Fowler was a bit surprised. Fowler had never met Greene before, she says, and the party isn't in the habit of taking personal checks from candidates filing for office.''

According to the Times story by Cory Hutchins, Fowler informed Greene he needed to establish a campaign organization and open a campaign account. And she got personal, asking Green, ''if he thought it was the best way to invest more than $10,000 if he was unemployed.'' Greene left, came back several hours later with a campaign check, which the party happily accepted. But that was the last anyone heard of Greene until last night, when he won in a walk."

Part of the situation seems to be that there is a Republican incumbent who is considered an easy winner. Greene's opponent, while having some experience, was not known state-wide and his $186,000 campaign actually amounts to peanuts in a whole state where campaigns usually cost millions. So, the voters didn't know either of them. Apparently they liked Alvin Greenes name better. Or, they mistook him for the singer.

As for the charges that have now been discovered, they seem to be weird but minor. He is accused of chatting up a girl in a library and getting her to look at his computer screen, which was displaying porn. No jury will find him guilty of a felony over that.

What I'm wondering, along with many other people, is where did he get the ten grand for the filing fee? Some suspect a Republican plant. It should be possible for some enterprising reporter to follow the money.

I don't think anyone will offer him anything not to run. He doesn't have a chance of winning anyway, and there are no viable Democratic candidates even if there were a way to substitute one.

Greene, while not very articulate, did say one interesting thing after his victory. He noted that he was the first black candidate running for South Carolina Senator on a major party ticket in over 100 years. So he got something for his money already.

He also said,
"I’m currently one of the many unemployed in the state and this country. South Carolina has more unemployed now than at any other time," Greene says. "My campaign slogan: Let's get South Carolina back to work."

That's an interesting thought. Why do we keep electing lawyers and successful businessmen, neither of whom need the jobs? Is it more logical to vote the unemployed into office and put them to work? On the other hand, maybe not.