Incoming Congressman George Santos, if that indeed is his real name, has a record of lies that most politicians would be envious of – and he hasn’t even officially started his job yet (other than to vote six times for Kevin McCarthy for Speaker).

Santos, who I am not entirely even exists at this point (and may, in fact, be an elaborate artificial intelligence Ronna McDaniel spent money on developing rather than electing real people), is no doubt going to be someone few people want to deal with at first. Just about every report from Tuesday indicates that he was sitting alone and looked miserable.

the cspan camera is stuck on minutes of george santos just pretending to be very busy on his phone while not a single person talks to him pic.twitter.com/jJq94qsyS3

— Kathryn VanArendonk (@kvanaren) January 3, 2023

To be absolutely fair, I would rather stare at my phone than deal with most of Congress, but I digress.

What is extraordinary is that Santos was caught in his lies and has even admitted to most of them, and yet, for reasons I cannot entirely explain, his new government website decided to try out another, just in case.

In case it’s hard to spot, it’s at the very top of that little Recent Votes chart – the part where it claims he voted against the H.R. 2617, otherwise known as the massive omnibus spending bill that was passed before he came to Congress.

The man is not even sworn in yet, and his website claimed he voted against last year’s omnibus bill. That’s nothing short of ballsy, to the point where you almost have to be impressed by the attempt. Someone clearly realized it was stupid as hell because it’s since been scrubbed.

When The New Republic and The Daily Beast first reported this, I was skeptical (as one should be when reading those two sites). So I went and looked at an internet archive site and, sure enough, it was there. It’s real. It happened.

I refuse to be mad at this. I am stunned, sure, but I find it hilarious because, once again, the Democrats were entirely capable of stopping this. At no point did they even try to alert the voters to the absolute scumbag liar Santos was, and Santos was elected thanks to their lack of opposition research. I still have some deep concerns about Santos’ financial status, but if it turns out he was bought and paid for by someone who means the country harm, the Democrats had every opportunity to stop it.

Meanwhile, I am convinced we are being trolled by Santos and the people who have decided, for whatever reason, to work for him.