When Did Iowans Stop Caring About Public Integrity?

Iowans in.US House vote to protect New Yorker Santos, serial liar and likely felon

May 21, 2023

It’s nice to tell ourselves that no matter how corrupt things get in the U.S. House, Iowa’s all Republican delegation is an exception. Thankfully, they are not a part of all that mess. Right?

Think again. They are enabling corruption in the House with their votes to protect Rep. George Santos (R-NY).

US Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-1st IA), Ashley Hinson (R-2nd IA), Zach Nunn (3rd IA) and Randy Feenstra (R-4th IA) all joined the effort this past week by Republican House Speaker Keven McCarthy to block a direct expulsion vote on Santos and keep the serial liar, fraudster and freshly indicted New Yorker in Congress.

Why Iowa’s Republican delegation would fight to save the career a New York politician and established - confessed, even - liar over the need to protect the integrity of the House of Representatives is puzzling. Especially considering that every one of Santo’s fellow New York freshmen Republicans in the House have called on him to resign.

But, there they are - Iowa’s delegation, throwing New Yorker Santos a life line as they throw the integrity of the House overboard without a life jacket.

Even Santos himself has admitted he “embellished” his resume, publicly confessed to previously using a fake name and using stolen checkbooks. He’s no innocent naif being victimized in the big city. He’s a lying fraudster, a thief, and likely felon.

However, it’s not really a mystery, why House Republicans did this.

Raw politics and stinking corruption.

House Republicans hold a narrow four vote margin in the House. Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy also happens to be the weakest Speaker in American history. No matter how corrupt Santos might be, Republicans don’t want to lose his vote in the House.

Forced to choose between keeping the corrupt Santos in office, or protecting the integrity of the House of Representatives, Republicans - including Iowa’s delegation - chose Santos. They did so in the proverbial “New York minute.”

Iowans no longer have the luxury of pretending that while the Republican US House may be corrupt these days, Iowa’s Republicans in Congress are not.

By holding onto Santos, they enable Santos’ corruption. By allowing him to remain, they corrupt the House, as well. They are all now hip deep in the corruption that sloshes around the US House these days.

History tells us there is a different way to respond to a big scandal in the House. In 2011, Democrats faced scandal - big time - in their ranks. They reacted to it in a way just the opposite from the way Republicans are reacting to this one.

Remember Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY), he of internet flashing fame and the Congressman who traded questionable text messages with a 17 year old girl?

When news of what Weiner had been up to hit the news, then-President Obama, then-House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and then-Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY) all publicly called on Weiner to resign. They did so within days. They made clear they wanted him gone immediately.

Within days Weiner had resigned.

Not exactly the playbook Republicans are using for the Santos scandal, is it?

This next part might get a little wonky, but bear with me. It’s useful to knowing what exactly happened this past week and understanding the route Iowa’s Republican House delegation took to embracing corruption.

First, some background: Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) introduced a resolution in February to expel Santos when the house of cards he built on his pack of lies started to collapse. In early March, several members of the House called on the Ethics Committee to investigate Santo’s lies, possible crimes, and other offenses.

There is little to no evidence that the House Ethics Committee has done anything about Santos since. House Speaker McCarthy certainly appeared largely untroubled at the prospect of having a possible felon ‘serving’ in the House.

With the news on May 10 that Santos had been formally charged with 13 federal criminal indictments for wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and making false statements to the U.S. House, Garcia decided to stop waiting on the Ethics Committee or - McCarthy - to do anything. He announced he would bring his expulsion resolution to the House floor as a “privileged motion” which, under House rules, meant the House would need to vote on it - up or down - within two days.

There was a work-around in the rules for Republicans, however. Speaker McCarthy, with the approval of a majority of the House, could intervene and send the resolution to a committee.

That’s what McCarthy did. A majority of the House, on a party line vote, went along and approved. The committee to which McCarthy sent it? You guessed it - the House Ethics Committee, again, where an “investigation” of Santos had been gathering mold since March.

The immediate vote to expel Santos was blocked, and the expulsion resolution was buried in the Ethics Committee. The whole point of that effort - and everybody knew it when they voted on McCarthy’s scheme - was to keep Santos in Congress, casting Republican votes as long as possible.

Santos’ massive lack of integrity, criminal indictments, likely felonies, and the damage he does to the House itself just by being there are all irrelevant to this corrupt gang.

“This corrupt gang” - sadly that’s a phrase that, with their votes to protect Santos now includes all four Iowans in the House of Representatives.

Which ought to. prompt a question for all of us: When exactly did Iowans stop caring about public integrity?

Below are links to the columns offered by the Iowa Writers Collaborative (IWC), which links some of Iowa’s best thinkers and writers directly with readers. Like “Barry Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains,” all columns are reader supported. Please consider supporting our work with a paid or free subscription.