There have been 11,573 members of the United States House of Representatives over the history of the United States. Over the years there have been some truly remarkable people in that body. From a quiet one-termer named Abraham Lincoln to the utterly odd and flawed Marjorie Taylor Greene, we’ve seen quite an array of individuals take the oath of office to serve in the House.

Most brought honor to that body. Heck, there was even a Bidlack in Congress (certainly not including me, as I lost my 2008 campaign), a gent named Benjamin A. Bidlack, who served a couple of mediocre terms in the 1840s before being defeated for reelection. He did make a bit of history, when, as the US chargé d áffaires to New Granada, he went against his direct orders and negotiated a treaty that eventually led to the construction of the Panama Canal, that I just visited.

But I digress… (Editor: you think?).

And over the 234 years that we’ve had a House filled with representatives, we’ve only seen five, yes five, actually get kicked out. That is largely due to most folks we elect being honest and hardworking, even if we disagree, but there were five gentlemen who so offended their fellow House members that they were expelled, an action that requires a two-thirds vote of the House. Three were tossed because they fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. I’d say taking up arms to overthrow the existing government is a pretty good basis for expulsion.

An additional ejection took place in 1980, when Michael J. Meyers, having been actually convicted of bribery, was removed. And in 2002, James A. Traficant, a veteran member of the House and the owner of what must certainly be the worst toupee in American history, was removed from office for a whole host of financial crimes. I’ll wait here a moment so you can click on that link to see the bad toupee. I know you want to.

All set?

By the time you read this, or soon after, it is quite likely, but not a certainty, the count of expelled members will rise to six. New York U.S. Rep George Santos is in deep, deep trouble. He faces a 23-count criminal indictment and he’s been caught in an astonishingly large number of lies about his own background. Oh, and he apparently improperly used campaign contributions for Botox treatments.

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Even after his swearing in, he continued to do, well, very odd and questionable things that demonstrate his unfitness for office. For example, he brought reporters cupcakes while his staff tried to secretly record what the reporters were talking about with hidden microphones. Cupcakegate? Oh, and he compared himself to Rosa Parks.

Sigh…

Santos, apparently, has absolutely no sense of shame. Heck, he even tried, during the State of the Union address, to get an aisle seat in hopes of shaking famous hands on camera. I loved it when he tried to shake hands with Mitt Romney who refused, saying “you don’t belong here.”

The House Ethics Committee recently issued a truly damning report on Santos and his actions, suggesting that not only should he be expelled but likely will go to jail.

So, with all that likely criminal and certainly dishonorable behavior during his campaign and continuing during his time in office, why hasn’t this obviously unqualified individual been expelled before now?

Because he voted for Kevin McCarthy for speaker of the House.

McCarthy, a man whose political leanings are subject to which way the Trumpian wind is blowing, desperately needed every vote he could get in his battle to hold on to the most important job in D.C. outside the White House. And so, McCarthy turned a blind eye toward Santos as he fully embraced Trump and his big lie.

Apparently, McCarthy believed in ethics until those ethics might impact his grab for power. Santos was not expelled because the GOP leadership thought he was, in a term I swear is an actual political science term, a “useful idiot.” That means the person may be a fool, but he can be useful to party leaders on votes and other matters. You know, pretty much how nearly every GOPer felt about Trump in 2015: if he wins, we’ll control him. Oops.

I can’t help but contrast the departures from Congress of Colorado U.S. Rep. Ken Buck and Santos. Buck is leaving the House in frustration over his party’s unwillingness to stop with the big lie and to actually address the real issues facing the nation. Buck has had enough of inter-party power politics and no results.

You might have heard of the recent House floor speech of hard-right Texas Congressman Chip Roy, who in utter frustration, stated: “I want my Republican colleagues to give me one thing – one – that I can go campaign on and say we did. One!” It was a remarkable speech, in which Roy stated the obvious: the GOP in the House has not done any real governance but has continued to be hung up on the 2020 election and the related insurrection. They haven’t done a damn thing in real policy-making. Yup.

Now that the GOP has a new speaker (who apparently is a pretty crazy far-right guy himself), the Republican leadership no longer needs Santos and his vote, so they can pretend to have found their moral centers again, and to, well, expel Santos. Simply put, he was no longer a useful idiot, but had now become a burden.

No doubt, when they toss Santos on the dustheap of history, the GOP will congratulate itself on having taken the proper ethical step regarding a deeply corrupt member. But I hope history will also recall it took them months, and a shift in power, for them to take the obvious action.

And so, in coming months, two Republicans will walk away from the U.S. House of Representatives. George Santos, likely with microphones following his every step, and Ken Buck, who will leave quietly but with his dignity intact.

I wonder which one is the true future of the Republican Party.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.