Dem
47
GOP
53
Yesterday, one of the odder sagas in American political history reached its conclusion, as former representative "George Santos" was sentenced to a little over 7 years in prison for wire fraud and identity theft committed during his various campaigns for office.
Needless to say, politicians on the take are not all that unusual. What made Santos particularly notable and/or memorable was the bizarre web of lies he told in service of both his grifts and his public image. As it turns out, he was not independently wealthy, nor was he a former trader at Goldman Sachs, nor was he Jewish, nor was his mother a victim of the 9/11 attacks, nor was he the holder of a BA from Baruch College or an MBA from NYU, nor was he a former volleyball star. The only fabulist representative of recent vintage to rival Santos in the Pinocchio department is Jim Traficant, but at least he had the good sense to tell his tales before the Internet made it trivially easy to verify wild claims.
We wrote a lot about Santos while he was still in Congress. That is not because we like to write sensational, gossipy items, because we don't. It was because: (1) back when Santos was in Congress, as now, the Republican margin was thin, and the presence/absence of one vote mattered a lot and (2) many Republicans (dishonestly) defended Santos as a victim of the media/the deep state/the DNC/yadda yadda yadda. That said, on the latter point, it was instructive that the Republicans in New York State all dropped him like a bad habit. Those Republicans answer to (mostly) moderate voters, including many who may have been hurt by Santos' lies.
We have hardly written about Santos since he left Congress because, again, he is no longer relevant. That said, given that we watched him so closely back when he was a representative, we thought we should at least mention the closing chapter of this particular, sordid epic. At least, we think it's the closing chapter. Santos is trying very hard to get a pardon from Donald Trump, and he might just get it. Trump normally pardons people who can do something for him—or to him—and Santos can do neither. However, Trump also sometimes pardons people to send a message along the lines of "The justice system is very unfair to Republicans." There was one like that this week, as the President gave a pardon to Michele Fiore, the "Lady Trump" who was convicted of stealing funds meant for a memorial to two police officers who died in the line of duty. So, it's possible there will be a Trump-authored postscript to the Santos saga at some point. (Z)