Liar, liar. George Santos is completely on fire.

Well, today's a big day in Washington, DC, as Congress will be sworn in. 

And big bad day for the country, as the Republicans are taking over the House and, in the thrall of their growing, vocal, and power-flexing extremist members, are promising to spend the next two years investigating anyone and everyone who's ticked them off. Joe Biden. (Hunter Biden.) Merrick Garland. Doctor Fauci. The members of the January 6th Committee. They'll probably be dragging Hillary Clinton back in. Just because they can. 

Why govern when it's more fun to go on a performative revenge tour? Let the spittle fly.

It must be a particularly exciting day for those coming into Congress for the first time.

I'm wondering whether Representative-elect George Santos, who represents a district on Long Island, will be one of them.

After all, even by the lax standards when it comes to political resume accuracy, Santos is at an almost unheard of Pinocchio

level.  

You name it, Santos has lied about it.

Where he went to school. What degree he earned. Where he worked. His family background. 

On Monday, Mr. Santos confirmed some of the inaccuracies identified by The Times. He admitted to lying about having graduated from Baruch College and making misleading claims that he worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. He also acknowledged that he was not, as he had claimed, making substantial income as a landlord. (Source: NY Times)

Not enough to lie about having a degree from Baruch. Santos said he had studied at NYU. No record there. He also claimed he attended the prestigious NY prep school, Horace Mann, but had to leave because his parents had a financial reversal of fortune - part of his fabricated persona as someone who came up from nothing and realized the American dream. No record of Santos ever having attended Horace Mann.

Then there's the BS about his work history. His employment history is a lot more pedestrian and less lucrative than anything that would have happened at Goldman. As a young man, he did, however, allegedly earn a few bucks embezzling from one of his mother's patients (she was a nurse) in Brazil.

His lies about his family history are particularly weird.

CNN also reviewed more instances of Santos providing additional false history of his family’s background. In one interview, Santos said his mother’s family’s historical Jewish name was “Zabrovsky,” and later appeared to operate a GoFundMe campaign for a pet charity (which he falsely claimed was a 501(c)(3) nonprofit) under that alias. Genealogists CNN previously spoke with found no evidence of Jewish or Ukrainian heritage in his family tree.

In another, he said his mother, whose family has lived in Brazil since the late 1800s, was a White immigrant from Belgium...

Santos also denied that he falsely called himself Jewish, claiming he “never claimed to be Jewish” but jokingly said he was “Jew-ish” to the New York Post. He also falsely claimed that his grandparents “survived the Holocaust” and fled Europe to escape Jewish persecution. But CNN found that Santos called himself an “American Jew” and “Latino Jew” on multiple occasions. The Republican Jewish Coalition disinvited Santos from appearing at any of its events because he “misrepresented his heritage.” (Source: CNN)

There are plenty of other lies/potential lies emerging as the saga plays out.  

Santos, for his part, as pooh-poohed the idea that he's a liar of the pants on fire variety. Au contraire. His claims, he says, were nothing but minor "embellishments," "a poor choice of words."

Actually, his embellishments were an excellent choice of words if all you really wanted was to get elected.

Santos has also defended his résumé lies by pointing out that fudging the details on your résumé isn't a crime. 

But what might be a crime surrounds the $700K that he lent his campaign. Where'd the money come from? Was it a legitimate donation or something illegally funneled through his work? And how did he go from earning $55K a year to making millions on a couple of smart/lucky deals the next?

And it's also not exactly (legally) kosher to solicit political donations based on lies. 

The Nassau County DA, who - like Santos - is a Republican, is investigating Santos, and has vowed to prosecute if she finds a crime. 

Federal investigators are also taking a look. 

I rarely agree with Tulsi Gabbard, the crackpot erstwhile Democrat who left the party for the greener pastures of Fox News. 

She interviewed Santos and called him on his parade of lies.

“These are blatant lies,” Ms. Gabbard said. “And it calls into question how your constituents and the American people can believe anything that you may say when you’re standing on the floor of the House of Representatives.” (Source: NY Times)

What a bum!