Tuesday's Primaries: Political Planet 2010

THUMBING THROUGH Tuesday's primaries turned up some choice glimpses of the political landscape of 2010.

In California, Meg Whitman, the former eBay chief, spent $61 million - much of it from her own piggy bank - to win the Republican primary for governor. She doubtless will spend much more for the general election against Democrat Jerry Brown. Whitman got 64.1 pct. of the vote, which translates into nearly a million bucks per percentage point. Nice work - if you can find a way to pay for it!

Also from California came the good news that Orly Taitz, who has gained questionable prominence as a leading witch-like voice questioning President Obama's birthplace credentials, was defeated in the GOP primary for secretary of state. She got 26 pct of the vote, which may be evidence that one of four California Republicans believe in witchcraft.

In Nevada, the home of high rollers and quickie marriages, Sharron Angle, won the Republican senatorial primary to challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Angle is the darling of the Tea Party and a militant outfit called Oath Keepers, who are convinced they they should be armed for battle when the U.S. government starts creating concentration camps for innocent Americans across the land. If it sounds like anarchy is on the march , well... I can only wonder how Sen. John Cornyn, who heads the Republican national senate campaigns will respond to this bit of scary news.

For pure Planet 2010 in American politics, however, nothing can top the Democratic senate primary in South Carolina, a state where strange things seem to happen every day. A fellow named Alvin Greene, an unemployed military veteran with virtually no cash on hand, won the contest although he was relatively unknown. Never mind. State Democratic Party Chairman Carol Fowler offered this meek explanation of how Greene topped former State Sen. Vic Rawl on Tuesday. She supposed that since neither candidate was well known, people voted "alphabetically." I can only conclude that when the word gets out, a lot of people with last names beginning with "A" or "B" will be clogging the ballots. Makes sense to me.

PS: State Rep. Nikki Haley, an Indian-American, won the South Carolina primary for governor to the chagrin of GOP State Sen. Jake Knotts, who described her as a "f--king Raghead". For the sake of the children who might show up at the polls, let's put that in context: What he said was: 'We already have a Raghead in the White House, we don't need another one in the Statehouse." Then came the added F-word description. Knotts did show a little remorse when he was criticized for his ethnic insight. He allowed that he should not have used the F-word.