Antic weirdness is infecting the midterm elections in the form of manipulative shenanigans being pulled by incumbents in both parties seeking to dilute the effects of a disenchanted electorate. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.
First, there was the Alvin Greene story in South Carolina. Like Venus from Zeus, he sprang fully formed from the forehead of some Republican political operative who passed him the do-re-me required to enter the South Carolina Senate primary. He didn’t campaign, is up on a felony charge, is unemployed, probably brain-damaged and yet more than 100,000 South Carolina voters — at least some of whom don’t really exist — voted for him and now he’s the Democratic candidate for Jim DeMint’s Senate seat.
Most of those who voted for Greene said they thought they were voting for legendary singer the Reverend Al Green. But then, that’s South Carolina for you.
Next came allegations that U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) has, like Dr. Frankenstein, created a female Tea Party candidate from leftover parts of a “quasi-paralegal assistant who works in a law office” and part-time pollster named Victoria Torres to siphon off Republican votes from his opponent in November. As with Greene, Torres appeared out of nowhere and declared herself a candidate running for the Tea Party, despite protestations from actual Tea Party members that there actually is no such thing as the Tea Party party, that it’s just a political movement, not a party.
Right. Tell Sarah Palin that.
Now, in Louisiana, like sprouts after a rain storm, a crop of black independent candidates has sprung up, causing Democrats to cry foul that they were planted by the GOP to siphon off votes from their party in November. The Hill shows us the essence of the Republicans’ talking points in two consecutive quotes:
Cao campaign Chairman Bryan Wagner said the campaign is not encouraging black candidates to run as Independents. But he did say the campaign always expected multiple Independents to be a part of the mix, as is often the case in elections in Louisiana. “Not all Independents would necessarily help the Republican candidate,” he said.
“We’ve been hearing that Democrats are the ones who want Independents in the race to break up Cao’s support,” said a Republican operative close to the Cao campaign. “Multiple candidates running as Independents isn’t out of the ordinary in Louisiana.”
Hey, sounds reasonable to me, right?
So, what are we seeing here? Are incumbents so afraid of the disenchanted electorate that looks more and more like a torch and pitchfork wielding mob that they’ll do anything to try and narrow the margins? Were all of these new candidates hit with some kind of political Rapture that called them to run? Do they smell incumbent blood in the midterms and believe that they can win just by letting the other candidates tear each other to bits and be the last non-campaigning candidate standing?
Is there something in the water (besides oil) that’s making people talk crazy-talk?
It is strange, but it’s also immensely entertaining. Should be fun to watch, at least until November when this slow-motion train wreck is scheduled to take place.
