I noted yesterday the unusual story of Alvin Greene, the unemployed, felony-indicted Army vet who managed to win the Democratic nomination in the South Carolina Senate race, despite having not held a single campaign event or spent a single dollar on the race.

Now House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D., S.C.) is calling for his state to investigate Greene’s victory, and suggested that he might be a “Republican plant.”

“There were some real shenanigans going on in the South Carolina primary,” Clyburn said during an appearance on the liberal Bill Press radio show. “I don’t know if he was a Republican plant; he was someone’s plant.”
The third-ranking House Democrat said he found it strange that Greene, a relative unknown prior to Tuesday, was able to produce the money to register and run for Senate despite being unemployed.
Greene allegedly tried to pay the registation fee in cash, and Clyburn said he wondered whether an outside party might have funded both the fee and Greene’s campaign, in violation of federal campaign finance laws.
[. . .]
“I would hope the U.S. attorney down there would look at this,” Clyburn said about Greene’s qualifications for the ballot, also pointing to Greene’s having allegedly tried to pay the fee to run for Senate in cash, despite being unemployed.
“I think there’s some federal laws being violated in this race, but I think some shenanigans are going on in South Carolina,” Clyburn explained. “Somebody gave him that $10,000 and he who took it should be investigated, and he who gave it should be investigated.”

UPDATE: Clyburn gets even more conspiratorial. Now he thinks there are three Republican plants in South Carolina.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn has called for a U.S. Attorney investigation into the mysterious candidacy of Democratic Senate nominee Alvin Greene because he thinks the mischief goes far beyond one wacky race. Clyburn (D-SC), Congress’ highest ranking African American, told TPM in an interview today he believes at least two other Democratic candidates on Tuesday’s primary ballot were planted by people with deep pockets and nefarious motives.
“The party’s choice in the 1st Congressional district lost. The party’s choice for U.S. Senate lost. Sounds like a pattern to me,” Clyburn told TPM. He said Greene was one of three Democratic candidates in three separate races whom the state party didn’t back or even recognize. All three candidates are African American.
One is Gregory Brown, who ran unsuccessfully against Clyburn in the 6th Congressional district. Another is Ben Frasier, who prevailed against state party-favored candidate Robert Burton in the 1st district. Greene, Brown and Frasier have something else in common — they haven’t filed any campaign finance reports with the Federal Elections Commission.

A reader makes the case for why Clyburn’s suspicion is nuts as well as I could:

Help me understand Clyburn’s thinking. Republicans had two options in South Carolina:
1 – Let the chips fall where they may and let the Democrats nominate whatever candidate they chose to run against a relatively safe Jim DeMint in a Republican state in a year with a Republican tailwind. Such a plan would mean that Democrats in South Carolina and the DSCC, as well as the candidate him or herself, would have to waste some money trying to unseat the incumbent.
or
2 – The Republicans could spend money on creating a ‘fake’ candidate in a state where the political atmosphere is eager to find any amount of dirt (c.f. current governor, current leading candidate for governor). Not only would such a plan incur costs, but would be fraught with peril, not the least of which is the plan is discovered and leads to the Republican party having to spend money fixing the problem instead of using those funds for toss-up states.
In short, the Republicans could play it safe and win or muck around and potentially cause themselves, and the national party, a huge headache.
Yeah, I can see why Clyburn is suspicious.