How Did Alvin Greene Happen

This is the story of the day.

Alvin Greene is the proverbial enigma wrapped in a riddle surrounded by mystery.

He's also the new Democratic candidate for Senate in South Carolina.

Greene admits he had no campaign headquarters, no party support, no contributions, no job, no computer and no cell phone.

Yet, somehow, he managed to pull off the most unlikely of victories, and -- unless state Democratic Party officials have their way -- will face incumbent Republican Sen. Jim DeMint in November.

This story is of course reminiscent of Scott Lee Cohen in Illinois. Cohen came out of nowhere to win the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor in Illinois. The very next day after his victory the media vetted him. Only then did the media find out that he had a criminal history and other things in his past. It was remarkable on two levels. The media totally ignorned Cohen and his past all throughout the campaign. Then, it took no more than 24 hours for the truth to come out once they stopped ignoring them.

Here we have the same thing. Greene had little money, no website, and didn't really run any advertisements. So, the media ignored him. As soon as he won, the media did its vetting. Once he was vetted, we found out he was unemployed, with a criminal record, and appears not to necessarily have all his faculties.

The job of the media in elections is the vet the candidates before the election. All of this came out immediately as soon as the media started to pay attention. So, any enterprising reporter could have figured this out long ago.

We have two disturbing similarities here. In both cases, we had 1) a race the media didn't care about and 2) a candidate the media didn't take seriously. As such, all of this was missed. That's a huge problem. The media is deciding which races and candidates are important. That's not their job. Their job is to vet all the candidates.

Alvin Greene was running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. It's simply inexcusable that all of this didn't come out until now. The Democratic party is trying to distance itself.

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) is suggesting that the circumstances of Alvin Greene's victory in the South Carolina Democratic Senate primary Tuesday are suspicious and should be investigated by the U.S. Attorney's office.

The world of politics was caught off guard by Greene's victory -- and was further shocked yesterday when news surfaced that the unknown, 32-year-old, unemployed veteran faces pending felony charges.

Questions immediately arose about the legitimacy of Greene's candidacy. While Greene insists he is the real deal, Clyburn, a high-ranking Democrat from South Carolina, is still skeptical.

Plant or not, Greene's history was a matter of public record. This wasn't hidden. The fact is that whoever is the nominee for the Democrats in South Carolina would be a sacrificial lamb for Jim Demint. That's why neither the Democrats nor the media took much interest in this guy.

This kind of lack of attention can no longer go on.