Oh, I would love to be able to start a rumor that those shitwits at Q-Anon would pick up on that GOP congressman George Santos is actually a Democratic Manchurian Candidate, because he’s blowing up the House GOP from the inside.
But I’m just as happy to let events play out, because Santos is only going to make things worse. But at this point, since I have no Q-Anon bona fides, I’m happy to let things just keep playing out the way they are.
Look, after a disastrous week that it took the GOP’s Howdy Doody Speaker Kevin McCarthy elected Speaker, he’s already down 4-0, and he’s ready to bunt to get to first base. And so he’s wantonly passing useless messaging bills that are already DOA in the Senate, and appointing a laughable Select Committee on the Weaponization of the US Government that is already being compared with the McCarthy faux anti communist committee, and that Hakeem Jeffries laughingly derided as the Insurrection Protection Committee.
And after all of that effort, what is leading the headline story on almost every major network every night? George freakin’ Santos! And he is going to continue to be a boil on Kreepy Kevin’s ass simply because He won’t shut up! He just keeps lying. And in one of those lies, he literally dragged McCarthy right down into the much with him, because McCarthy is a political imbecile.
Talking to NBC News Santos said that he respected the feelings of the now eight GOP congressman demanding his resignation, he  He was elected by 143,000 New York voters, and when 143 voters told him to leave, he’ll see them in two years.
This gave McCarthy a lifeline. McCarthy started defending Santos by quoting the constitution, but the constitution doesn’t apply. And then he immediately switched over to Santos’s mantra, claiming that this was an issue between Santos and the voters, they elected him. Except no, they didn’t elect him. What they thought that they elected was a smooth, saccy, successful business executive who knew how to get things done. The only problem there is that every word Santos told then was A Lie! The New York voters elected a craven fraud.
And it’s only going to get worse. I wrote more than a week ago that I could already see that the only explanation for Santos’s financial finagling was good old fashioned money laundering. And the more the media digs into his campaign, and his financial dealings, the more obvious that becomes.
Santos claimed two personally held corporations of some kind of dodgy financial investing, and a campaign Treasurer who seems to be only one step ahead of him. Reporting shows that the Treasurer shares the same address as a Santos PAC that raised money for his campaign, yet shows no expenditures in advertising for the campaign. But neither of his “corporations” have a public facing web page, and exist only in the articles of incorporation. Worse for Santos, there is no list of investors or donors, both of which are required by the FEC if Santos is going to claim that income for his $700,000 loan to his campaign.
Santos is the Bernie Madoff of the GOP, except he just isn’t that good at what he does. And if the national media is able to do this kind of work in unraveling his rather serpentine personal and campaign finances, just think what the investigators at the FEC, the Nassau County DA’s office, the DOJ, and the New York Attorney Attorneys Office are going to be able to do.
Here’s how it breaks down. For every day that this scumbag moron remains in congress, reporters are going to chase him from the front door to his office, and from his office to the elevator. And the Santos Story will continue ti overshadow everything McCarthy and the GOP troglodytes try to accomplish to take over the media news cycle with their bullshit investigations and committee hearings.
And sometime in the next six months, when Santos is indicted by one or more investigative agency, Howdy Doody McCarthy will have no choice but to strip him of his lame ass, 3rd rate committee assignments, and then stand quietly by him while the trial plays out. Because. He. Needs. That. Vote! And when Santos is convicted, and carted off to durance vile, the state of New York will hold a special election and elect a Democrat to the seat buying time is the best option McCarthy has available to him at the moment.at. That’s the McGuffin. All McCarthy is doing is buying time.Â
Well Murf, this could get better (or worse, depending on how you want to look at it) than you’ve described. Being convicted on financial fraud doesn’t automatically cause Santos to lose his seat! NY state has no recall provision and even in states that in theory at least have constitutions that allow for recall of those elected to federal office it’s never, ever been tested. At best it’s a dubious Constitutional question but even a normally constituted SCOTUS would be unlikely to uphold some state doing what’s not in the U.S. Constitution.
Once seated there are three ways a member of the House or Senate can lose their seat. Resign, be expelled by a vote of their peers according to the rules of the chamber, or die. In normal circumstances a Party would move to expel one of their own convicted of a felony. However we are talking about the Trumpified GOP. And this is where it could get really, REALLY wild. Let’s say Santos is convicted before his term is up. What does McCarthy do? And the rest of the GOP? That my man will be one entertaining cluster fuck of a shit show to watch! I’m not at all convinced that the GOP would expel him. Some would vote to do so I’m sure, if only because they are in “Biden districts” and trying to maintain “moderate” cred but it takes two-thirds in the House to expel a Member and I doubt that many GOPers would take the leap.
They won’t take the leap because they don’t care about truth, ethics, morality or duty. As long as there’s a vote to gained, they’ll accept anyone, no matter how skeezy, into the fold.
What I’d love to see is a large number of indictments, including at least one for Santos, issued in the same week for the seditionists in the House and Senate. That would demolish McCarthy’s majority and the schadenfreude would be exquisite!
Well, if Santos should be convicted, I’m not certain how much his own decisions regarding his political future will come into play. Since almost the entirety of his conviction(s) will be based on FRAUDULENT behavior, there are typically CRIMINAL penalties that can come into play with convictions of fraud (especially if the money being mentioned have criminal connections). And, by criminal penalties, I mean “prison.” And there ain’t nothing in the Constitution that would prohibit Santos from being convicted and imprisoned (the Constitution’s protection reads “They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same”*); I cannot believe that any GOP member of the House is going to want to die on the “Keep George in Congress even though he faces jail time” hill.
*For what it’s worth, the rest of that section (Article I, Section 6) concludes with “and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.” Strictly interpreted, this could be taken to mean that the media and even voters have NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to challenge a member of Congress on any vote they cast or speech they make. (Well, the First Amendment might grant the right but there’s been no change that would explicitly cover the people’s “right” to question their members of Congress.) It should be noted, though, that another reading of this could mean Santos could deliver a speech before the House admitting to every one of his crimes (and cackling gleefully as he ends it with “I got away with it all”) and it couldn’t be used against him in court.
Howdy Doody was never as evil as these carbunckles on the devil’s ass.