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United States News Title: S.C.'s Alvin Greene a mystery man despite becoming Democratic Senate nominee S.C.'s Alvin Greene a mystery man despite becoming Democratic Senate nominee By Manuel Roig-Franzia Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, June 10, 2010; 11:38 AM MANNING, S.C. -- Alvin M. Greene never gave a speech during his quixotic campaign to become this state's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. The mystery man of South Carolina politics didn't launch a Web site or hire consultants or plant lawn signs. There's only $114 in his campaign bank account, he says, and the only check he ever wrote was to cover his filing fee. This Story A mystery for South Carolina Democrats Rep. Clyburn: Alvin Greene is 'someone's plant' Indeed, in the course of a rambling, repetitive and frequently inchoate three-hour interview, this jobless military veteran could not name a single specific thing he'd done to campaign for lofty political office. Yet, more than 100,000 South Carolina Democrats voted for Greene on Tuesday, handing him a resounding victory over a well-funded ex-judge who has served four terms in the state legislature. "I'm the Democratic Party nominee," he says. "I mean, I mean, the people have spoken. The people of South Carolina have spoken. The people of South Carolina have spoken. We have to be pro-South Carolina. The people of South Carolina have spoken. We have to be pro-South Carolina." Things have gotten even stranger since Greene's startling win. First, the Associated Press reported that Greene faces pending felony obscenity charges for allegedly showing pornography to a University of South Carolina student. Then, the state's Democratic Party chairman called on him to withdraw from the general election. He's been accused of being a Republican plant and listened to his victory explained away as a fluke that resulted from his name coming before his opponent's in the alphabet. All of this barely fazes Greene. He says he has no intention of withdrawing and is challenging his opponent, the incumbent Republican Jim DeMint, to a September debate. Greene leads a remarkably isolated existence at the home of his ailing 81-year-old father, James Greene, on a stretch of rural highway in central South Carolina. Greene has no cellphone and no computer, except the one at the public library. "I check my e-mail, like, it varies, maybe -- I'm more, I mean -- two or three times a week," he says. "I prefer the telephone. I'm a little old-fashioned. I prefer the telephone. That's the easiest." Greene, a solidly built 32-year-old, sighs heavily as he speaks, pausing often during long, meandering monologues. He taps his hand against the table, alternating between staring at the floor and running a hand across his face. He sits on a folding metal chair at a picnic table set on the linoleum floor of his father's wood-paneled living room. Above him, a ceiling fan with a bare bulb stands motionless. His father -- who says he's a dialysis patient and is still recovering from open-heart surgery four years ago -- moans in pain and occasionally interrupts Greene to say he's veered off the subject. Greene's life story is as vague as his campaign. He says he was born in Florence, S.C., went to high school in Manning (a town of 4,000 near his father's home) and graduated from the University of South Carolina in political science. He says he served in the military -- first in the Air Force and then in the Army -- from his college graduation in 2000 until nine months ago. "I was honorably discharged from the Army, but it was involuntary," he says. "Things weren't working. Same thing happened in the Air Force. . . . It's a long story in both services."
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This just gets better and better with every passing hour....(laughing) I can't wait to see what the Democrats offer this guy to get him to walk away. And I can't wait to see his reaction to whatever they offer come bubbling out afterwards. Serious political problem. A black Vet, unemployed. How in the hell do the Democrats attack him if he continues to refuse? Hell, they couldn't get rid of the blind cokehead thats NY's governor, they couldn't get rid of Burris in Illinois... Pass the popcorn.
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