Is Alvin Greene a Republican plant?

Congressman James Clyburn thinks that Greene, the unlikely victor in a South Carolina Democrat primary, was paid to run for office. Could it be true?

The incredulity over Alvin Greene's surprise win in the Democrat primary for South Carolina's Senate seat shows no sign of abating. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D—SC) openly accused the unprepossessing 32-year-old, who won without holding a single campaign event, of being a political pawn: "There were some real shenanigans going on," Clyburn told a radio talk show. "I don't know if he was a Republican plant; he was someone's plant." Greene has denied this, saying his victory was due to "word of mouth." Could there be any truth to Clyburn's allegations? (Watch Keith Olbermann drill Alvin Greene about his past)

This is a set-up engineered by those good ol' SC boys: Greene's victory means "only one thing," says Devona Walker at AlterNet. "Someone rigged the Democratic primaries down in Dixieland." The "good old boys" in South Carolina proved they were willing to stoop to dirty tricks with the ugly Nikki Haley affair. "I'm just wondering how long it will take for Greene to crack under the pressure."

"The curious case of Alvin Greene"

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Why would anyone run a plant against sure-thing Jim DeMint? The idea of the "plain-spoken" Greene being a plant raises more questions than answers, says Allahpundit at Hot Air. For one, Republican Jim DeMint is a "mortal lock to be re-elected" in South Carolina, so why would you "risk all the bad publicity and possible criminal repercussions" of rigging the election?

"Another trainwreck: Olbermann interviews 'America's candidate'"

Wouldn't you choose a more convincing plant? Even if you did want to run a plant against DeMint, says Jim Geraghty at the National Review, would you really "entrust Alvin Greene" — accused of a felony and hardly media friendly — to pull off a "grand conspiracy"? For that matter, "would you trust Alvin Greene to water your plants while you're away?"

"It's not easy being Greene, but apparently he wins easily"

We're inventing conspiracies to explain his behavior: Judging from his extraordinarily vague interviews with the media, says Adrian Chen at Gawker, "there seems to be literally nothing to Alvin Greene." Maybe we're trying to fill in that well of "nothingness" with "our own conspiracy theories," when the only truth behind Greene's candidacy is he's "just some random dude" who accidentally won a Democrat primary.

"Mystery SC candidate's bizarre Keith Olbermann interview"

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