'World News' Political Insights: Alvin Greene Leaves Democrats Spinning

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2010— -- Democrats may wind up rooting for the Alvin Greene action figure after all. That way, they could put him in a box and ship him back to anonymity.

Greene, the Democratic Senate candidate in South Carolina, got his latest turn in the headlines today with what was apparently his first actual campaign event, a speech in front of a local NAACP branch that drew national media attention for all the wrong reasons so far as Democrats are concerned.

Long before Greene emerged as the shocking winner of his state's primary, Democrats basically gave up on the chance of defeating Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., in the conservative rising star's re-election bid this year. The best they could hope for was that he would win another term quietly.

Enter Greene, who's been anything but quiet in the awkward and outrageous comments he's uttered in a series of post-primary interviews he's granted. (Asking a reporter if he could get paid for his time and suggesting that the government sell action figures of himself to help close deficit mark just two of his recent gems.)

Democrats have given up hope of replacing Greene on the ballot. Several different investigations have failed to turn up any evidence to suggest that Greene's primary victory over Vic Rawl -- who actually campaigned for the job but lost by more than 30,000 votes -- wasn't legitimate.

In short, if getting Greene on the ballot was a dirty trick, it worked. And so Democrats will be stuck with him right through November -- action figures and all.

Elsewhere in the midterms, it's time for some choices -- if Democrats have any say in the choosing, that is.

Democrats get a boost in their efforts to frame the congressional elections as a choice -- as opposed to a referendum -- with the swearing in of a new senator from West Virginia, Carte Goodwin, on Tuesday.

Bringing the Senate Democratic caucus back to 59 will free congressional leaders to forge ahead with unfinished agenda items, starting with an extension of benefits to the long-term unemployed.