Mr. Santos Goes To Washington

And there's nothing we can do about it

(Author’s note: As of this morning, George Santos is the target of an Ethics Committee investigation, brought by two Republican New York Congressmen, concerning his campaign finance reporting … we’ll see how it all unfolds in the coming days.)

Free Pass …

By the time I post this little blurb, Congressman George Santos may already be (or on his way) out the door of Congress, tripped up not by his lies which are legion, but by his campaign donation(s) which may well be criminal. The crazy thing is that you can’t get kicked out of Congress for lying your way into it.

George Boy, The Fabulist

While not the ‘biggest’, and certainly not the ‘best’,  George Santos may hold the record for being the “most complete” liar in Congress to date. I won’t bore you with a list of his Fabulations. The press has done an excellent job in that department.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/01/the-everything-guide-to-george-santoss-lies.html

How Did This Happen?

But where were they BEFORE the election?  And why did George think he could get away with his lies? He wasn’t running for dog catcher after all.  The answers may lie within recent history.

2020 Redux?

George Santos ran for the same seat and lost in 2020. Why didn’t any of this come out then? My best guess, nobody gave Georgie Boy much chance of beating the incumbent, Thomas Suozzi (Democrat), who had held the seat since 2016, so they didn’t spend much time or money digging into his life story. Besides, in 2020 the country was focused on ’The Big Lie’ and the Big Liar. New York’s Third Congressional District voted for Biden. Santos got pushed aside. But history has a way of repeating itself and lying to advance (or even save) your career didn’t start in 2022. Here’s a list. List of famous Liars —  “I am not a crook.”  But let’s take a quick look at the near past.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Remember Governor Andrew Cuomo? He lied the old fashioned way in 2021, to cover up sexual harassment claims. That lead to his resignation and Lt. Governor  Kathy Hochul becoming New York’s first female governor.

Well, Thomas Suozzi decided to challenge her in 2022, which meant stepping down as the representative for New York’s Third district. That opened up the seat and this time around, the political mood in the 3rd District having turned from blue to purple.

Never Let The Truth Get in The Way

Apparently, unafraid of the potential consequence of getting caught in all those lies, George saw an opportunity and jumped into the breech. He sailed through the campaign and the election with little opposition, beating his opponent, Robert Zimmerman, by 7.6%.

Irony, Thy Name is George

In an ironic foreshadowing of what was to come, in 2020, after his loss, Santos publicly questioned Suozzi’s honesty on the campaign trail. But I’m not here to bury George, he’s done a good enough job of that already.

Opposition Research….Not Really!

It appears that Democratic opposition research in 2022 focused  mainly on his ties to the January 6th insurrection and his position on abortion. Opposed …? Maybe. Who can trust what he says? They did note that his purported animal rescue group did not appear to be registered with the IRS. https://www.semafor.com/article/12/19/2022/the-democrat-who-lost-to-an-alleged-fraudster-says-he-tried-to-warn-you

But the IRS has its own problems.

Anyone Have a Ten-Foot Pole?

It also turns out that his own party kept its distance as well from the 2022 race. A Cook County Political Report evaluation of the race quoted a “Senior House GOP Aide” saying they were concerned about his business background and “were not touching him with a ten-foot pole.”  But they weren’t about to blow the whistle on him either. As we’ve seen, Kevin McCarthy needs every Republican vote he can muster, including George Santos’. It may be one of the reasons that George will stay in his seat, if at all possible. We’ll see.

Why we must keep local newspapers.

In the end, George is an example of what can happen if we depend solely on social media for our information. It took a local journalist and a local newspaper, the North Shore Leader, to dig down below the surface and even then, we weren’t ready to believe it. We’ve been trained over the last decade to disregard the press in favor of ‘tweets’ by our media influencers.  https://www.theleaderonline.com/single-post/the-leader-told-you-so-us-rep-elect-george-santos-is-a-fraud-and-wanted-criminal

It’s time to get back to ‘real’ journalism over the ‘real’ housewives of … . (fill in the blank).

The Real Housewives of…

And speaking of housewives real or otherwise, Real Housewife of Salt Lake City, Jen Shah, was sentenced  this past Friday to six and one half years in the ‘slammer’ for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. From the accompanying picture, it’s hard to tell, which part of Jen is real.  No matter, it sounds like a pilot could be in the works, titled The Real Housewives of Prison. https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/1/6/23542202/jen-shah-real-housewife-sentencing-78-months

So that’s enough for this week. Let me know what you think about lying and politics, and if we can even tell the difference. 

In the interim, here are some short movie clips to help inspire us. First Jimmy Stewart’s version of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. 

And for those Simpson fans here’s Mr. Lisa Goes To Washington

How ’bout the Knickerbockers -Remember them? Here’s ‘Lies’(1965) on the Ed Sullivan Show. Yes, they sound like the Beatles — on purpose — They’re actually from Bergenfield, NJ.