One Alvin Greene mystery solved, but many remain

Mystery South Carolina candidate Alvin Greene paid his own filing fee to run for Senate, a state investigation has concluded, officials told the Associated Press last week. That news would seem to confirm what Greene has insisted ever since he shocked the political world with his triumph in the state's June Democratic primary: He is not, in fact, a Republican plant.

It seemed far-fetched for Greene, an unemployed 32-year-old who lived with his parents, and who had indicated to the state court system that he was only bringing in $1,000 a month, to come up with the state's $10,440 filing fee on his own. But Greene's military exit pay and tax refunds gave him the wherewithal, state officials told the Associated Press.

So the filing fee now makes sense. That just leaves political observers with the still-sizable challenge of making sense of the rest of Greene's campaign. Greene has little shot of defeating Republican Sen. Jim DeMint this fall, and he has not improved those odds with his offbeat campaign ideas, including the plan to create jobs by manufacturing soldier dolls of himself.

But even if Greene isn't destined for the Senate, he's confident he'll remain in the public eye. Indeed, the New York Times reported Friday that he says he has fielded interest from people all over the world, including a California screenwriter. And Greene, never afraid to think big, told the Times that if a movie of his life is made, he's settled on Denzel Washington for the lead role.