Palmetto State Politics: Curiouser and Curiouser

Well, since as far as I know there's that god-awful video still of Helen Thomas that can't be un-seen on the front page (not to mention you were thiiiiis close to some Pelosi images) I figured I could at least treat you to a little Nikki Haley. 'Who is Nikki Haley?' you're probably wondering. She's the daughter of Sikh immigrants from India and is currently a state representative from Lexington County who's also running for governor of South Carolina on the GOP ticket.

As some of you might remember last year, incumbent Governor Mark Sanford opted out of governing and hiking to Appalachian Trail to personally improve relations with Argentina- one Argentine at a time.

From there, things only got more bizzare. With Haley's gubenetorial campaign gaining momentum and the state lawmaker getting endorsements from Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, Gov. Sanford's former press secretary Will Folks claimed "Yeah- I hit that" on his blog. These claims could not be independently verified, however.

Then, Republican state Senator Jake Knotts described both Haley and President Obama as 'ragheads' on an internet broadcast earlier this month. Knotts later apologized amid criticism from both the Democrats and GOP.

On Tuesday, Haley was the winner in the state's GOP gubenetorial primary- getting 49% of the vote. However, since she didn't win more than 50% of the vote, she faces a runoff with the next closest candidate, Gresham Barrett.

But if you thought all the Palmetto State wierdness was confined to epithets and bogus extramarital affair claims on the GOP side, guess again.

On the Democrat primary for US Senate, former state legislator Vic Rawl- who was expected to challenge incumbent Republican Jim DeMint in the November general election- didn't even make it past the primary. Rawl lost by 16 points to complete unknown Alvin Greene, a 32 year old unemployed Army Veteran who basically forgot to campaign once he registered as a candidate- no website, no bumper stickers, no speeches and no yard signs [talk about your stealth candidate!- NANESB]. Apparently he was too busy trying to get into the University of South Carolina's women's dorm by showing dirty pictures on his cell phone, with a felony obscenity charge the only result of his efforts. South Carolina Democrats have urged Greene to step down, but so far he apparently isn't budging.

Never one to shy away from wasting taxpayer funds, US House Majority Whip and alleged tea-party spittle recipient Jim Clyburn (D- South Carolina's 6th district) has accused Greene of being a GOP plant and is calling for an investigation from the Department of Justice.

The sad part is that since it's the Democrat party that's been made a fool of, there probably will be a full-scale Federal investigation ignoring the fact that even if Greene was a plant, he was still chosen by the voters over the candidate who actually had money, ads, speeches, yard signs and a website.