Like Trump, George Santos Won’t Go Away

I know you’re sick of hearing about disgraced and expelled former Congressman George Santos. For those who have paid attention he decided, despite pending federal charges (he’s likely to go on trial in September) to again run for Congress. Reality set in and he realized he had less than a snowball’s chance in hell of winning a GOP primary so he’s just announced he will instead run as an Independent!

Remember when we all thought George Santos was gone? Or at least banished to being the punch line of jokes on late-night talk shows? It wasn’t all that long ago. At least we thought we’d never again see him in the halls of Congress, much less in the actual House chamber but there he was during this year’s SOTU. It turns out when a Congress Critter is expelled their floor pass isn’t taken away. (Note to Congress – you might want to fix that) So there he was getting more undeserved attention. He shares some traits with Trump. Inability to tell the truth. A craving for the spotlight too. He just won’t go away and more importantly STAY away. You know the old line about if a global killer asteroid were to hit all that would survive would be the cockroaches? Well, there’s good reason to think they’d have Trump to keep them company. And George Santos too!

I’ll get to the question of why he’s refusing to give up, but first let’s cover the basic details of where things now stand. NBC News reports that as of yesterday Santos has decided to run as an Independent in New York’s 1st Congressional District:

“I am officially suspending my petitioning in #NY01 to access the ballot as a Republican and will be filling to run as an independent,” Santos wrote on X.

He cited “today’s embarrassing showing in the House” as his reason for switching to an independent run. The Republican-led House earlier Friday voted to pass a $1.2 trillion spending bill hours ahead of a government shutdown deadline.

Let’s take a closer look at this. When Santos was expelled he represented the 3rd Congressional District. Even he had enough sense to know not to try and get THAT seat back so he went looking for another District in New York.  Like the folks over in the 1st District don’t know all about him! Alas, poor Georgie has come to the realization that even if “almighty Trump” were to endorse him and while on trial in Manhattan skip over a couple of evenings a week to stump for him he can’t win the GOP primary. So, in a breathtakingly brazen even for him manner Santos is now trashing the GOP as corrupt and useless. An entity without values or ability to adhere to the truth.

CNN ran its own article about this and it talked more about Santos leaving the GOP and his “reasons” which are shall we say more than a little WTF? From CNN:

“I in good conscience cannot affiliate myself with a party that stands for nothing and falls for everything,” he wrote on X. “I am officially suspending my petitioning in #NY01 to access the ballot as a Republican and will be filling to run as an independent.”

“Good conscience?” Now coming from Santos THAT’S a howler. So is his crack about “stands for nothing and falls for everything.” Oh, Santos and other conservatives do in fact stand for something – power and the money that comes with it. They just don’t want to say that part. But in the sense of competent, responsible governing it’s true they stand for nothing, except winning and holding power. As for the “falls for everything” well, that’s what they have proven all too effective at recognizing in voters. Getting voters to fall for all manner of bullshit.

In any case Santos realized he was toast come primary day. So why drop out of the GOP and run as an independent? Money. Fundraising. He’s in deep legal trouble and needs money for lawyers. And some extra to have on account with the commissary in whatever prison he might wind up in. It will cost him a small fortune to buy protection once he’s “inside.” Crazy as it sounds he’ll be able to raise at least a little money. Wasting it on trips to DC for say a SOTU or perhaps when Netanyahu addresses Congress (don’t get me started on THAT) seems ill-advised but like I said. He craves the spotlight every bit as much as Trump.

So what we are left with is a dude who is unelectable but has name recognition (for all the wrong reasons) running for Congress. Maybe, since he’s clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed he thinks that with a trial scheduled for September DOJ won’t be able to prosecute him for at least a few more months. He’s wrong of course. DOJ wouldn’t hand down a new indictment but once the case is in a judge’s hands DOJ policy on “influencing elections” goes out the window.

Trump might (it’s infuriating but true) might be able to get away with a judge deciding it’s “impractical” to hold a trial once the post convention part of the campaign commences.  Santos however is a little fish and I’m pretty sure when HE tries to convince the judge how “unfair” it would be, and claim “election interference” the judge will say sorry – see you on such and such date because your trial WILL be starting. However as I said remaining a candidate allows Santos to fundraise. It might  not be much but he of course will take all he can grift.. er, get from contributors.

Like Trump, George Santos won’t go away.  Maybe Islip (where his court case is being held) will do us all a favor the next time he shows up for a court hearing. Commission “Garbage Barge II complete with painting his name of the back of the scow. Send him to sea searching for a port, anywhere that would accept it/him. Hey, no place would accept the first one! It stands to reason another try would get the same reaction at ports both in the U.S. and other countries!