Peggy Noonan: “He shouldn’t be in Congress. We all know this. It’s not good enough to say they’re all con men. Even in Congress there are degrees. This one’s a pro, a menace, a total, not partial, fraud. If he has any qualifications for public office they haven’t emerged. He is a bad example for the young: Cheating works. He is an embarrassment to the old. He is an insult to the institution.”
“Getting rid of him will ‘take time,’ we are counseled—ethics investigations, campaign finance probes. But the entire Republican leadership, while not quite embracing him, has been happy to use him. He voted for Kevin McCarthy for speaker. He was appointed to two committees.”
“They are making a mistake. They should stop, and tell him he has to leave. They should press him to resign. They should dissociate themselves from him, ostracize him.”
“They are going this route because they have a majority of five votes and think they can’t afford to lose even one. Especially a particularly malleable one who’ll do anything leadership asks! But in the meantime Mr. Santos is allowed to put his own poisonous imprimatur on all of them, on every initiative and bill, on everything they do.”
