I guess they were never able to prove definitively that South Carolina Democratic senate nominee Alvin Greene was recruited by the GOP. But there isn’t any question about the phony candidates the GOP is supporting in Arizona:

TEMPE, Ariz. — Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks. The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street. The internal debate he is having in advance of his coming televised debate is whether he ought to gel his hair into his trademark faux Mohawk.

Mr. Pearcy, 20, is running for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees public utilities, railroad safety and securities regulation. Although Mr. Pearcy says he is taking his first run for public office seriously, the political establishment here views him as nothing more than a political dirty trick.

Mr. Pearcy and other drifters and homeless people were recruited onto the Green Party ballot by a Republican political operative who freely admits that their candidacies may siphon some support from the Democrats.

There is also the guy who is homeless and penniless but who nevertheless wants to be Arizona’s Treasurer. He reads Tarot cards to feed himself and he’s known for his trademark purple and green jester’s hat. There’s the white-bearded dean of the streets who goes by ‘Grandpa.’ He’s a state senate candidate.

The Democratic Party is fuming over Mr. May’s tactics and those of at least two other Republicans who helped recruit candidates to the Green Party, which does not have the resources to put candidates on ballots around the state and thus creates the opportunity for write-in contenders like the Mill Rats to easily win primaries and get their names on the ballot for November. Complaints about spurious candidates have cropped up often before, though never involving an entire roster of candidates drawn from a group of street people.

But, you know, this isn’t cheating. This is just playing hardball, right? It doesn’t demonstrate any contempt for the process or for the intelligence of the people. Nooooo.

I thought the people loved the Republicans. Aren’t they all supposed to be frothing at the mouth to go vote for them? So, why is cheating necessary?

On another note, this is a side effect of making ballot access too easy. We normally complain about access being too hard (either too costly, or requiring a ridiculous number of signatures), but if you make it too easy, the other side can just put up a slate of homeless people to drain away some potentially decisive votes.

But Republicans love our country soooo much.