In a year when Democrats are supposed to be taking over Congress, it's pretty amazing how shallow their bench is. Instead of offering strong candidates with real counter-ideas supposedly to oppose Republicans, they seem to have a larger than normal crop of human muck. Yet as the Roy Moore debacle showed Republicans,  elections are won by attracting good candidates. With charmers like these in Democrats' current lineup, there's reason to question whether there's really going to be a wave.

Chelsea Manning is the latest to join this clown cavalcade, filing to run for a seat in the Maryland Senate.

It's an astonishing development, given the scope of Manning's crimes. While in a position of trust, Manning downloaded 700,000 government secrets and then forked them over to Wikileaks for global distribution, endangering U.S. agents and nullifying countless intelligence operations. He was then caught, sentenced to 35 years in Leavenworth, whined about not liking it, got special treatment in a government-funded sex change, and then received a pardon from President Obama, which he has since used to taunt the last two administrations and America in general, free and unaccountable for his crimes. He took to writing columns for the Guardian and living the celebrity lifestyle, taunting his detractors in Twitter, communicating almost exclusively in emojis.

Now he's in line with the Democrats for a Senate seat as they plan to take over Congress, which ought to go over real well with the Fort Meade crowd, in their home of the National Security Agency. And you thought Bluto in the Senate couldn't be outdone.

Yet the problem goes well beyond Manning.

Just last week, the hot desperate talk from Democrats was all about Oprah Winfrey, a daytime talk-show host, running for president to succeed President Trump. Sure, she's had success as an executive. She's also had success emoting. But the outsider act has already been done. If she can't win on that novelty value, and has no governing experience, it's unclear what value she might be to voters. But she's the name the Democrats are putting out there.

The less-celebrated Democrats out there paint a picture nearly as repulsive as that of Manning.

There was the Democrats' New Mexico congressional candidate, David Alcon, arrested for stalking in Albuquerque, not just ten years ago, but late last year, according to the New Mexico papers. The creep stalked a woman, sent her threatening text messages, said he wanted her to have his baby and transmitted photos of his genitals. Apparently, the Democrats have disavowed him and it's unclear if he got his paperwork in on time but obviously, he saw this year as a good time to be a Democrat in the House.

There's also Democratic congressional candidate Willie Singletary, a former Philadelphia judge who was caught with his hand in the till in a parking fee scam, lost his job and went to jail for perjury. He says his Democratic congressional run is because he needs "a fresh start."  

The Democrats, via the Huffington Post, have made much of what they claim is a surfeit of criminality among on the Republican bench, claiming four Republicans now running have convictions. But it's a false argument, given that most of the named candidates, such as former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, were convicted in politically motivated prosecutions so common during the Obama era.

The Democrats by contrast have venality, treason and thievery as their candidates' disqualifiers. No party can prevent any interloper from running under its banner, but cripes, this is supposed to be a 'wave year' for Democrats. All we are seeing is sludge.