It is only a matter of time before Congressman George Santos resigns from his seat or agrees to step down under pressure from some public agency. It is, however, worth exploring the who, what, where, when and whys about how Santos got the Republican nomination to begin with.

Over a period of six months, Democrat Robert Zimmerman, a highly respected party official, launched a comprehensive campaign for the congressional seat. Zimmerman ran a picture perfect campaign with help from such high level Democrats as former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer. Regrettably, due to the “red wave” Zimmerman lost.

Surprisingly, Zimmerman’s campaign operation failed to detect the enormity of lies promoted by Santos during the campaign. In its final days, some of the false statements in the final stretch of the race, Santos was able to fly under the radar and his lies went undetected.

It is worth exploring the process from the very beginning. Santos appeared before his party’s screening committees, but it is rumored that most committee members disliked him.  However, there was no other candidate available and some committee members viewed this as a tough seat to win because the district lines lean Democrat.

Santos got the party designation and from there the rest is history. His campaign today is now considered one that is riddled with lies, but how do you judge a candidate’s veracity? There are three types of candidate claims. There is a fib, an exaggeration and there is an outright lie.

Candidates commit fibs frequently. An Army veteran will claim that they were in active combat, when they sat at a desk shuffling papers. An “exaggeration” happens much less frequently. It generally occurs when a candidate claims to have extensive cybersecurity experience when all they had was a minor cybersecurity role.

And then there is George Santos. He claims to come from a family of Holocaust survivors. That was a terrible lie. He claims he attended both Baruch College and NYU and worked at Goldman Sachs and Citibank. That was another lie. He claimed his parents were Jewish. He now claims he was Jew-ish. These claims plus many others were bold lies.

Last week Long Island Republican elected officials denounced Santos and urged his resignation. The state Republican Party joined in as both groups feared being attached to Santos in anyway. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave Santos complete political cover by claiming his fate is in the hands of the voters. This is a cop-out as Santos has a two-year term. McCarthy needs his vote so he took the cowardly way out.

While the New York denunciations are clear-cut and are made to make Santos feel unwelcome, he has been sworn in and has an official office. He is awaiting his committee assignments, which are expected to be minor in nature. Will his congressional colleagues take any actions against him? That is unlikely, considering the Republicans rule by a narrow margin.

Santos’ ethical issues do not set him apart from the balance of the Republican Party in the House. Republican Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) has blamed a variety of problems on “Jewish Laser Beams” controlled by billionaire George Soros. She spouts many other quirky theories. Last year, after being punished by the Democrats, she is about to be elevated to major committees as a reward for supporting Speaker McCarthy.

So what is the fate of George Santos? While his conduct is being looked at by the Nassau County district attorney and the New York State attorney general, his most serious threat comes from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Santos’ campaign expenditures are under current scrutiny, which would force Santos to resign if found in violation of the law.

Eventually, Santos will be gone. But the Santos story is a warning to all future candidates on how far they can go before they are caught and run out of town. It is also a lesson to political committees that they must use much more discretion when meeting with potential candidates.

In the end, the tragedy of George Santos may turn out to be a badly needed lesson for the entire political world.