Congressman-Elect’s Dubious Resume Presents Alamo Scenario for GOP

Expect Democrats to begin chipping away at the GOP’s five-seat majority by focusing on a Republican congressman-elect, George Santos of New York, as calls for his resignation grow. The scandal over his inflated resume may replace the January 6 drama as Capitol Hill’s next big show and complicate an already messy race for House speaker.The drama’s opening act debuted on Monday when the New York Times reported that Mr. Santos “seems to have misrepresented a number of his career highlights,” including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, the big names on his resume, which “told the Times they had no record of his ever working there.”Baruch College couldn’t find a trace of his supposed 2010 graduation, and a check with the IRS turned up no evidence of Friends of Pets United, which he claimed to run. Although the list doesn’t end there, the Republican knee-jerk instinct will be to defend Mr. Santos like Texans at the Alamo, presenting whataboutism exhibits to the court of public opinion.President Biden is an infamous fabulist, who casts himself as everything from a college football star to top of his law school class to martyr arrested for trying to see South Africa’s Nelson Mandela. Two Democrats, Senators Blumenthal of Connecticut and Harkin, formerly of Iowa, both claimed to have fought in the Vietnam War, when the closest they came to combat was clutching an iPad streaming “Apocalypse Now.”Such examples will make for good talk radio and Fox News Channel counter snark, but the difference with Mr. Santos is none of those men risked legal jeopardy with their lies. For example, the Times reports that the Devolder Organization — the consulting company from which Mr. Santos draws his salary and lent his campaign over $700,000 — “is something of a mystery.”Devolder has no online presence and “Mr. Santos’s disclosures did not reveal any clients, an omission three election law experts said could be problematic if such clients exist.” The congressman-elect could also face charges if he registered to vote and made campaign donations from a fake address, as the Times alleges.The exposé will be enough for some ambitious prosecutor to get the camel’s nose under the proverbial tent, and if Mr. Santos was willing to lie about things disproved with such ease, what are the odds he crossed all the T’s, say, on his personal tax forms or those for his phantom animal charity?Democrats have already organized a Wednesday rally at the home where the congressman-elect does not and may never have lived to demand he resign. Pressure will grow on Republicans to join the chorus, giving another headache to the man in line to be the next Speaker of the House, Congressman Kevin McCarthy of California.Under Empire State law, Mr. Santos’s resignation would trigger a special election in New York’s 3rd Congressional District; so, his Democratic opponent, Robert Zimmerman — who is calling for a criminal investigation — may get another kick at the can should his party overlook the political malpractice of failing to do basic opposition research.The district at northern Long Island delivered Mr. Santos an eight-point victory in November, but he lost a race in 2020 to Congressman Thomas Suozzi, then the incumbent Democrat. Should the seat open, money will flood into the faceoff, reflecting the value in a House where every seat counts.Mr. McCarthy will be pressed not to swear Mr. Santos into office, and for a man already struggling to find the votes to get elected speaker, the loss of the NY-3 seat will further complicate his path. Furthermore, President Trump backed Mr. Santos, who boasted of attending the January 6 protest, giving Democrats another chance to keep the issue in the very spotlight the former president craves.With much of Washington and the press on the cusp of vacation, Mr. Santos’s foes might not pick up the torches and pitchforks in earnest until after January 1st. He will likely use that time to throw himself, like Mr. Biden and Messrs. Blumenthal and Harkin, on the mercy of voters. But before joining a losing cause, Republicans would do well to remember the Alamo.

Congressman-Elect’s Dubious Resume Presents Alamo Scenario for GOP

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