Randi Rhodes: Senate Dem Hopeful Alvin Greene Facing Obscenity Charges 'Still Better than Jim DeMint'

August 19th, 2010 9:36 AM

While lefties are foaming at the mouth over what Republican Senate candidates like Sharon Angle and Rand Paul have to say, they're not quite willing to publicly embrace or defend the antics of their own duly elected nominee, South Carolina U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Alvin Greene. That is, they weren't until now. 

On the Aug. 17 broadcast of her radio show, Randi Rhodes went to bat for Greene. According to Rhodes, the indiscretions that brought Greene indictments, in which he allegedly showed obscene photos to a University of South Carolina student and then talked about going to her dorm room, weren't really that bad. Although it's not clear if Rhodes was being serious, and it's difficult to tell, she claimed he was "sharing a wonderful moment of pornography" with this student and bewildered why such an approach warranted criminal charges.

"Let me tell you - you know my candidate for Senate in South Carolina is Alvin Greene," Rhodes said. "I left off where he was supposedly indicted for you know sharing a wonderful moment of pornography with a girl who was over 18 in a college library - in a college library where he had attended college by the way, so he still has his ID card to get on the campus, so. I don't know what law he broke, but apparently they say he did and they indicted him. And so the local TV went over to his house to see what his comments were about the indictment."

Rhodes then played that infamous clip of Greene howling at a reporter from North Carolina station WCNC. And her conclusion - even with this abnormal behavior from an individual that represents the Democratic Party for the South Carolina, he's still better than the incumbent, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. and lamented the idea he has been unable to raise any money.

"He's still better than Jim DeMint," Rhodes said. "I don't give a rat's - that's why he's my candidate. He's still better than Jim DeMint, OK? A guy that's howling in his house, ‘Nooooooo, goooooooo,' is still better than Jim DeMint. And that's why Alvin Greene will always be my candidate for senator from South Carolina. I love this guy. I think - he's fabulous. I mean, if they can have the nut bags they have, why can't I have Alvin Greene? And why aren't we supporting him? I think the guy has raised $1,000 since this whole thing started."

But Rhodes used those peculiar circumstances surrounding Greene, which have likely hindered this hopeful from raising money to level attacks against Koch Industries and NewsCorp for giving money to the Republican Governors Association, chaired by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.

"That's wrong. You know you got the Koch Industries people give a million dollars Haley Barbour in Mississippi," Rhodes protested. "[Y]ou know oil and chemicals - the Koch family, Americans For Prosperity, the Koch family, the fake grassroots Tea Party, the Koch family - giving a million dollars to Haley Barbour. Fox News gave a million dollars, News Corp. to Haley Barbour!"