Jim DeMint

Alvin Greene’s Debut Speech: Not A Great Start!

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Alvin Greene, the South Carolina Democratic Senate nominee against Senator Jim DeMint, is a true “unknown” quantity, having shocked everyone by defeating a white state legislator, despite have no campaign appearances, no funding, no platform of ideas, and no media coverage! Many have wondered if he was part of a Republican plot to undermine the Democrats, and have questioned how this unemployed person was able to pay the filing fee to run! It has also been pointed out that he faces trial on a pornography charge!

But so far, he has been cleared in every sense except the upcoming trial, and yesterday, he made his first public appearance at a local NAACP event in his home town, and delivered what he claimed would be a 20 minute speech, but ended up being only 7 minutes!

Greene repeated himself many times in his speech, which was handwritten, and referred indirectly to his own legal problems! He had nothing substantive to say, and it would be stretching things to say that he made a good impression! He also would not take any questions from the news media, and the one time he has granted an interview, he had long pauses before answering, sometimes as much as five minutes!

To believe that he has a chance to defeat DeMint is to believe in the tooth fairy and Santa Claus! The question remains whether he will debate DeMint, hold news conferences, make many campaign appearances, and have a campaign staff!

So far, there are no indications on these matters, and it seems likely that DeMint will win by a bigger margin than any Senate candidate running, and that Alvin Greene will turn out to be an embarrassing disaster for the Democratic Party! 🙁

South Carolina: An Embarrassment Again Politically! :(

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South Carolina has long had an image of being an intolerant place, and a state of embarrassing politicians! 🙁

The state of historic hard line political figures including John C. Calhoun and Strom Thurmond, it has had the embarrassment of Governor Mark Sanford going to Argentina and meeting his lover behind his wife’s back, and refusing to resign! 🙁

It is the state of Republican Senator Jim DeMint, one of the absolutely worst senators ever put into office by voters, since the enactment of the 17th Amendment in 1913!

It is the state of Alvin Greene, an African American with no qualifications or experience to be a United States Senator, somehow magically winning the Democratic nomination over a state senator by a vast margin, with no one having any idea how he did it! Greene had no website, no campaign funds, did no campaigning, is totally inarticulate, and faces a felony charge on pornography next month, but yet is the choice of the Democratic voters! Maybe, the answer is that his name was first on the ballot, and the average voter probably had no knowledge of the race when they voted! 🙁

This is also the state of Nikki Haley, the front runner for the GOP nomination for Governor, born a Sikh, but converting to the Methodist faith at age 24. Haley, endorsed by Sarah Palin, and calling herself an ally of the Tea Party Movement, is controversial enough, but now she faces an opponent who is using her religious background as an issue! Gresham Barrett’s campaign is trying to plant fear among evangelical Christians as to Haley’s true religious beliefs, as if it should matter! 🙁

This is the issue of what is a “good Christian”, something unique to evangelicals, including Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network, who is exploiting the issue for the upcoming runoff election! 🙁

This is a sign, unfortunately, of what former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, a Mormon, will face when and if he runs for President, and competes in the South Carolina primary, a race notorious in the past for the badmouthing of Senator John McCain in 2000, when he ran against George W. Bush, and racial bigotry was exploited! 🙁

In South Carolina, if it is not race that is the issue, then it is religion! 🙁

Haley won 49 percent of the vote in the gubernatorial primary, but it will be interesting to see if she can go over 50 percent and become the nominee as a result of the exploitation of the religion issue by her opponent’s campaign! 🙁

Whatever one thinks of Nikki Haley, it will be a bad reflection on South Carolina if she fails to gain one percent plus more votes because of the issue of what is a “good Christian!” 🙁

Excellent Evidence Why Strong Political Parties Are Essential For Democracy To Work!

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The nomination of Alvin Greene as the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in South Carolina against Republican Senator Jim DeMint is excellent evidence of the need for strong political parties, despite all of the attacks on parties evident in this year of disillusionment with politics on the part of many Americans!

The fact that South Carolina has an “open primary” system had led to shenanigans such as this one, where an unknown candidate is likely being put on the ballot by the dominant political party’s funds, and many registered members of the party “cross over” in the primary to set up the weakest possible candidate to oppose their favored nominee in their own party! An investigation has begun into what seems likely to be a GOP ploy, which would not be surprising, considering the history of the Palmetto State! 🙁

There is no way to explain such an inarticulate candidate, with no money, no campaign organization, no website, no campaign appearances, and no substance in his views, to have, somehow, won a nomination for an office that he is obviously unqualified for by any measure one employs!

How is Alvin Greene to conduct a campaign against Jim DeMint and take part in debates, when he cannot even explain in very basic terms how he has organized and run a campaign as the “stealth” candidate, coming literally out of “nowhere” to become a nominee for the Senate? 🙁

As bad as other nominees and winners of Senate elections have been in the present and past, Alvin Greene would likely stand out as the absolutely worst nominee ever offered on a fall ballot for the Senate in many decades, and possibly ever in the history of elections! The Democratic party wants him to withdraw, which he refuses to do, and it makes one think that he is indeed part of a corrupt “Republican plant”, making a mockery of the whole election process! 🙁

So, to say that “open primaries”, and the decline of strong parties that is being pushed in California, and already exists in Washington State and Louisiana, is a good thing is subject to much greater scrutiny!

It makes one wonder if democracy is being served with the call to deemphasize political parties, or whether it is promoting a lack of responsibility and commitment to principles that political parties have represented in the over two hundred year history of parties in our political system!

The Strange Case Of Alvin Greene In South Carolina: A Scandal Hatched By The GOP? :(

Ronald 3 Comments

Alvin Greene is an African American resident of South Carolina, 32 years old, unemployed, receiving unemployment compensation, and facing charges involving pornography that he must confront in court with a public defender as his lawyer!

But Alvin Greene is also the Democratic nominee for the US Senate against Senator Jim DeMint, just about the most conservative member of the Senate, and a likely candidate for the GOP Presidential nomination in 2012!

How did he afford the $10,000 filing fee? Beyond that, how is it that he managed to win enough support, without ANY political background at all, and showing evidence of being hardly articulate in the minimum sense, that he was able to come out of “nowhere” to emerge as the Democratic Party’s “best” candidate to represent South Carolina in the Senate? 🙁

House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, himself an African American, is suspicious that Greene is a “plant” by the Republican Party, and Greene refuses to answer any questions about the filing fee, his arrest, or really anything else about himself, past and present! 🙁

It is not that anyone in their “right mind” really thought that a state as conservative as South Carolina was about to retire Jim DeMint, but it is obvious that Alvin Greene’s candidacy is a total mockery! It certainly requires a full investigation, and a possible removal of Greene from the Senate race, which he makes clear in halting, inarticulate language that he is not prepared to accept! 🙁

The Futile GOP Attempt To Repeal Health Care Legislation

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The Republican party is moving ahead to attempt a repeal of the just enacted Health Care reform legislation. It is an exercise in futility, and further disgraces the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and even Ronald Reagan!

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Congressman Steve King of Iowa in the House, and Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina have introduced bills to repeal the legislation.

For them and other Republicans, including John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Eric Cantor to endorse such action, only further marginalizes them in history and in the future political debates!

In order to accomplish the repeal over President Obama’s veto would require a two thirds vote in both houses, meaning a swing of 26 Republicans in the Senate and 113 Republicans in the House in the midterm 2010 elections.

That kind of swing has NEVER happened, and is not about to occur under the most optimistic scenarios! While there will be some gains by the GOP this November, to believe that history and the political atmosphere is on their side to bring about the impossible–a turnover of the legislation–is delusional, to say the least!

If the Republicans had any dignity, they would stop their ridiculous behavior! But what it comes down to is that the GOP has met its “Waterloo”, as Jim DeMint predicted Obama would meet. The tables have been turned on the GOP, and they are Napoleon, and Obama and the Democrats are Wellington!

To promote fear and hysteria, and to expect they will win power on such a basis, is a false strategy that the GOP will come to regret, unless its leaders are smart enough to move on and stop a bitter fight that cannot be won!

Jim DeMint, Jeb Bush And 2012

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Conservative Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina stated in an interview that he was not interested in running for President in 2012, but thought former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was the best candidate available on the horizon.

The only problem, DeMint declared, is that his last name is Bush! 🙂

Actually, on this, DeMint is probably correct, as Jeb Bush can be seen by most conservatives as having fewer weaknesses or negatives than almost anyone being discussed as a possible GOP Presidential nominee.

Jeb would have probably been a better President than his brother, George W., but losing the Florida governorship to Lawton Chiles in 1994, while his brother defeated Governor Ann Richards in Texas, changed the course of history, certainly for the worst.

But it seems clear that, at this point, Jeb Bush has no desire to run in any case. However, the best advice is not to consider the issue closed, as anyone who follows politics knows anything can happen!

The Moronic Climate Change Deniers: Senators James Inhofe And Jim DeMint

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Washington, DC and the Atlantic Coast from New York to Virginia are suffering from what is, at least in the nation’s capital, the worst winter season and snow totals in recorded history.

Florida had a sustained period of two weeks of very cold weather, which did great damage to agricultural crops, causing major financial losses.

This has encouraged climate change deniers, such as Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, both Republicans, to ridicule the idea of climate change, with Inhofe building an “igloo” as a gift to former Vice President Al Gore, the leading promoter of the concept of global warming. And Senator DeMint has been joking about Gore as well.

The problem with these two senators is that they do not understand science, as both are religious zealots who believe that there is no crisis pending, that no evidence is able to convince them of the need to plan for climate change in the future. They ridicule people like Gore because of the colder weather and heavier snow now going on, but the point of climate change is that it is not just warmer weather than normal, but also much colder weather than normal, which are scientific signs of the climate change crisis.

The fact that heavy rains and flooding is becoming more common worldwide, and that the icebergs at the North Pole are melting very rapidly does not dent their moronic brains.

Rather than prepare the nation and the world for the future, they would rather put their heads in the sand as an ostrich would, and only focus on the moment, instead of on the future when their children and grandchildren will face the climate change crisis and wonder why these stupid, moronic senators refused to believe scientific evidence and show some statesmanship in preparing for the future, as Al Gore and many others have been doing.

The ignorance of science is astounding, and the stupidity of these two senators and their ilk is mind boggling! 🙁

Another Embarrassment For South Carolina! Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer!

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As if South Carolina did not have enough government officials who are an embarrassment to the Palmetto State, now another person can be added to the list!

We already knew about Governor Mark Sanford, who went off to Argentina without telling his wife or family or even his staff, to pursue an affair outside his marriage. This has led to unsuccessful impeachment moves by the state legislature, and a recent move to censure him, but allow him to finish his term.

His lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer, who would be the successor if he were to leave office before the end of the year 2010, now has managed to get himself into trouble with his comments! Bauer showed lack of sensitivity and pure stupidity this week when he made a public statement in a speech comparing poor children to stray animals! He said that feeding stray animals or poor children both lead only to more reproduction, because you are giving them encouragement! He then apologized to animal lovers for comparing stray animals to poor children, but did not apologize to poor children and poor people in general for comparing them to stray animals! He criticized the giving of free lunches to poor children in school.  Is there anything more despicable than this?  🙁

Can you imagine if this jerk, this disgrace of a public official, were to become Governor of South Carolina? Can you actually realize that his accession to the Governorship would be worse than keeping Mark Sanford in office? What is it with South Carolina that they can elect such morons to high positions in state government? And to top it off, Andre Bauer obviously wants to be Governor, and might very well be elected if his state’s population is insensitive enough to do so this November! 🙁

So South Carolina has Mark Sanford and Andre Bauer as their two top state officials! And add to this the embarrassment of Congressman Joe Wilson who yelled “No” at President Obama last fall, and Senator Jim DeMint, considered the most right wing member of the Senate, and who became infamous for pushing the idea of stopping President Obama’s health care plan, in order to create Obama’s “Waterloo”!

One wonders why South Carolina seems incapable of electing mainstream, reasonable, decent political leaders. They seem never to have recovered from John C. Calhoun, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Strom Thurmond! LOL

Senator Jim DeMint And The Transportation Security Administration

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South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, a leading critic of the nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration because of his backing of the collective bargaining rights he believed the TSA employees should have, can be accused of undermining the job of the TSA to protect the American people.

Why does Senator DeMint believe that TSA workers should not have the right to decent conditions of work? Does he not realize that, if you have satisfied employees who have basic rights that other government workers have, you will obtain better performance and higher standards of commitment than if you have low paid, poorly treated workers?

It comes down again to the reality that Senator DeMint, looking ahead to running for President in 2012, is more concerned over being the typical anti labor Republican from the South than in doing what is right for the agency and its workers!

Republicans And The Use Of The Word “Terror” Against Barack Obama

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Republicans have been on the offensive since the Christmas Day Bombing attempt in Detroit, accusing President Obama of refusing to use the word “terror” and to fight a war against it.

This is absolutely amazing, since Obama CONSTANTLY uses the word “terror” and has decided to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight against terrorism. But you would never know it from what GOP leaders are saying.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, Missouri Senator Kit Bond, and Michigan Congressman Peter Hoekstra have all be lying through their teeth just for political advantage, thinking that the American people will believe what they have to say.

Of course, they are being assisted by talk radio and Fox News Channel, so the battle to tell the truth must continue, as the Republicans will stop at nothing to politicize the problem of terrorism for partisan advantage.

Again, as often in the past, the GOP is best at promoting fear and insecurity to gain and keep power. Telling the truth is not half as important! 🙁