We know who topped Santa’s naughty list this year—former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.). No doubt about that after the release Monday of the House Ethics Committee report.
The bipartisan panel found “substantial evidence” that, while a congressman, Mr. Gaetz violated state and federal laws “prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.” His first year in the House, the report alleges, he “engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl.”
Mr. Gaetz responded to the report by saying, “I live a different life now.” One would hope so. But that doesn’t excuse his reprehensible behavior. He was a stain on Congress, and that’s saying something these days.
Also on the naughty list this year are the Biden White House staffers who worked assiduously to hide their boss’s mental and physical decline. In a piece of journalism worthy of a Pulitzer, four of this newspaper’s reporters pieced together the story of how President Biden’s closest aides and advisers “would manage the limitations” of a man who wasn’t up to the world’s most consequential job.
We all could see Mr. Biden’s alarming feebleness, but only his inner circle and the president’s family knew the full extent of his increasing infirmity. Yet they organized the White House, his schedule and appearances, and even his contacts with members of his cabinet to conceal his inability to perform his duties.
In doing so, they put their service to one man above the good of the country. It gets worse. They wanted Mr. Biden, who’s a shell of himself, to run again, knowing he couldn’t complete another term. That would have thrown our nation and the world into a crisis. It was an act of astonishing selfishness and stupidity.
On Santa’s political nice list this year, House Speaker Mike Johnson was near the top. His likability and genial nature are a big reason he’s survived with a razor-thin GOP margin in a House where there are too many disruptive personalities in his party.
Mr. Johnson has maneuvered through rough political seas made a good deal more turbulent by President-elect Trump and his new best buddy, Elon Musk. These two men asked of Mr. Johnson the impossible—that he somehow deliver dozens of House Republicans who had never voted for a debt-ceiling increase—or let the federal government shut down just before Christmas.
Yet Mr. Johnson kept the House Republican ship afloat and brought it to harbor, passing a continuing resolution that funds the government through March 14. But by doing so, he reportedly angered Messrs. Trump and Musk and damaged his chances to retain the speakership in the new Congress.
Still, it’s hard to see a smooth path to power for anyone else in the House GOP. Does Mr. Trump want the days before his inauguration marred by another protracted fight over the speakership? Nonetheless, Mr. Johnson must beware the ides of March. Tough days await when the continuing resolution expires in the middle of that month.
