The GOP's ethics problem won't go away with George Santos

Former Congressman George Santos of New York is not a loveable character. Facing federal charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements, falsification of records, aggravated identity theft, and credit card fraud around misuse of his campaign accounts, he is also a shameless and prolific liar.

Santos has claimed: to be the descendant of Holocaust survivors; a Wall Street executive with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup (both firms have no record of his employment); that his mother was a 9/11 victim; that his mother died of cancer; that he played college volleyball at a college he did not graduate from before getting an MBA at another university he did not attend; that he had employees at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando the night of the mass shooting; that he was never a drag queen.

But, more worryingly, he is accused of using his campaign account for shopping sprees for luxury items. That sounds fairly ho-hum. The federal charges also detail allegations that he fraudulently used donor credit cards to make charges in their name. That’s a new one.

His former campaign treasurer has already pled guilty to falsifying federal campaign reports in order to qualify for national campaign support, including financial support.

On December 1, the House of Representatives voted 311-114 to expel Santos from the House. The House Ethics Committee completed an investigation into his conduct and submitted a report earlier in November that was approved unanimously.

Two Democrats voted not to expel; two voted “present.” 112 Republicans voted not to expel. Some had reasonable explanations, the most common noting that Santos had not yet been convicted of a crime. Representative Bill Huizenga of Michigan made a notable comment in his official statement: “Even dirtbags deserve due process.”

Yet, there was a disturbing trend among the Republican “no” votes. 67 of the Republicans who voted against expelling Santos – 60 percent - also voted to overturn the 2020 election. In that 67 are the most self-serving and extreme members of the caucus: Boebert, Gaetz, and Greene among others.

These are members of Congress who want personal power at the expense of everything else. These are the ones who ignored the wishes of voters, in many cases from states in which they did not live, in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. And then they fundraised on it.

Now, on the Santos vote, this me-first bloc shows that keeping one more R vote is more important than upholding the dignity and reputation of the House of Representatives. Because, we have to win! At all costs!

This is not legislative representation. These are completely self-obsessed individuals focusing each day on how to rake in campaign cash and social media attention. This is not crafting policy to propel our nation forward in difficult and dangerous times.

This is foolishness. And the GOP tolerates this self-indulgence on the part of candidates and elected leaders on national, state and county levels.

The Republican Party has fostered and nurtured this plague by standing by silently after the 2020 election and President Trump’s eight-week tantrum that culminated in a riot on the Capitol and the majority of the House Republican caucus voting to overturn the election with no legal basis to do so. But, anything for a win, right?

What message are we sending our citizens and the world? It should have come as no surprise when in 2022, defeated Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro, a bombastic right-wing populist president with legal woes rivalling Donald Trump’s, also decided to mimic Trump by challenging his presidential election loss to Lula da Silva, who won by more than 60 million votes. By standing by their man, the Republican Party is encouraging further challenges to democracies around the world.

So much for the party of Lincoln and Reagan.

It’s maddening to me that coming into the 2024 election, it’s still a valid debate question to ask whether a candidate believes Joe Biden is the lawfully elected President of the United States. Allowing Trump’s lies about the 2020 election to go unchallenged and unanswered for three years is reprehensible on the part of my party. Even more, it’s cowardly.

There is another likely reason the worst of the MAGA caucus voted not to expel Santos: the glass house rule. Matt Gaetz is awaiting the outcome of his own House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and misuse of funds. Lauren Boebert is still recovering from her bad date night where she vaped, groped and flipped her middle finger during a theater outing. And Marjorie Taylor Greene just got her committees back after posting support of violence toward Democrats. Since then, she’s been busy attacking Jews and Muslims with equal ignorance (one wonders where she stands on the Israel war).

I can see why this crowd might be worried about expulsion proceedings. Heaven only knows what other skeletons are in their closets.

And if you don’t like Speaker Mike Johnson, cheer up. His job just got harder. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy just announced he will depart Congress at the end of the year. With Santos’ expulsion, the GOP margin in the House come January will be just two members. With this chaotic caucus, who knows how long he will last anyway?

*Columnist’s note: I made a terrible error in my last column about local artists but learned great news with the correction. Nancy Sims, now Nancy Gray, is well and thriving (she admits to being hard of hearing: me, too!). She left a lovely voice mail with the Daily Press but not her phone number. Please get in touch, Nancy – Jared and I would love to catch up! And my apologies for the error. Being away from Silver City for 30+ years makes me a poor correspondent at times for local events of note.

Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican, she lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and two of cat. She can be reached at news.ind.merritt@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: The GOP's ethics problem won't go away with George Santos