Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire George Santos Now Expelled
On Friday the US Congress voted to expel representative George Santos. The Congressman's constant and outrageous lies, about everything from his family history and educational achievements, to how he spent campaign contributions on personal clearly expenses, were ultimately too much even for his fellow Republicans in the House. The vote passed 311 to 114, with 105 Republicans voting in favor of expulsion. Example news coverage: CNN live news, 1 Dec 2023.
Friday's vote was not Congress's first attempt to oust Santos. Congress voted, and failed, to expel him a month ago. That motion, which was also introduced by fellow Republican members, didn't even gain a majority vote. The constitution specifies a two-thirds majority is required to expel someone from Congress.
So, what's the difference between a month ago and Friday? What moved an additional 81 Republicans- though none of the top four GOP leaders- to vote to boot Santos?
The one thing that's changed is the House ethics committee completed its report. Recall they created a distraction during the previous expulsion vote by promising they'd release "something" (yes, they literally promised something) in a few weeks. Well, that report came out (CNN article 16 Nov 2023), and while it was quite damning it was also nothing new. It was merely a summary of evidence already available in the public record. The committee made no formal finding of guilt, nor did it even recommend expulsion. It merely recommended the DOJ prosecute Santos... which is a farce because the DOJ already started prosecuting him several months earlier.
While the ethics report was essentially a nothingburger... or at least a nothing-new burger... it did make it harder for Republican members of Congress to keep countenancing Santos's behavior. It was surprising to me that almost half of them gave up their previous "No expulsion until a member is convicted of crimes" position and voted to expel Santos now.
I suppose if nothing else his ongoing and ridiculously transparent lies were making it hard for them to sell to the American public their false, evidence-free narrative that Democrats are actually the party constantly telling lies. I mean, all George Santos needed to do, probably, was just shut up and let better liars tell lies. But he couldn't stop.
BTW, I paused to consider whether to include the second political cartoon above. Some would argue that depicting Santos in a dress is a jab at LGBTQIA people- a group that includes Santos, who is openly gay and has admitted he enjoys cross-dressing. I would argue that it's actually a further jab at the hypocrisy of his GOP colleagues, many of whom routinely rail against LGBTQIA people and want to erase them from public life by force of law- for example, House Speaker Mike Johnson has introduced multiple pieces of legislation to criminalize LGBTQIA people and has spoken countless times about how LGBTQIA people are attempting to destroy America by being who they are- yet continued defending Santos because he was a vote in their column.
Friday's vote was not Congress's first attempt to oust Santos. Congress voted, and failed, to expel him a month ago. That motion, which was also introduced by fellow Republican members, didn't even gain a majority vote. The constitution specifies a two-thirds majority is required to expel someone from Congress.
So, what's the difference between a month ago and Friday? What moved an additional 81 Republicans- though none of the top four GOP leaders- to vote to boot Santos?
The one thing that's changed is the House ethics committee completed its report. Recall they created a distraction during the previous expulsion vote by promising they'd release "something" (yes, they literally promised something) in a few weeks. Well, that report came out (CNN article 16 Nov 2023), and while it was quite damning it was also nothing new. It was merely a summary of evidence already available in the public record. The committee made no formal finding of guilt, nor did it even recommend expulsion. It merely recommended the DOJ prosecute Santos... which is a farce because the DOJ already started prosecuting him several months earlier.
While the ethics report was essentially a nothingburger... or at least a nothing-new burger... it did make it harder for Republican members of Congress to keep countenancing Santos's behavior. It was surprising to me that almost half of them gave up their previous "No expulsion until a member is convicted of crimes" position and voted to expel Santos now.
I suppose if nothing else his ongoing and ridiculously transparent lies were making it hard for them to sell to the American public their false, evidence-free narrative that Democrats are actually the party constantly telling lies. I mean, all George Santos needed to do, probably, was just shut up and let better liars tell lies. But he couldn't stop.
BTW, I paused to consider whether to include the second political cartoon above. Some would argue that depicting Santos in a dress is a jab at LGBTQIA people- a group that includes Santos, who is openly gay and has admitted he enjoys cross-dressing. I would argue that it's actually a further jab at the hypocrisy of his GOP colleagues, many of whom routinely rail against LGBTQIA people and want to erase them from public life by force of law- for example, House Speaker Mike Johnson has introduced multiple pieces of legislation to criminalize LGBTQIA people and has spoken countless times about how LGBTQIA people are attempting to destroy America by being who they are- yet continued defending Santos because he was a vote in their column.