The consensus is in: Matt Gaetz is gross.

That may seem pithy to declare, but the ongoing saga of Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz has been a roadmap of red flags since before he was even elected. As Gaetz prepares for the process of being confirmed as Donald Trump’s pick for Attorney General, now seems like as good a time as any for a look back at why he’s such a controversial figure.

And boy, do we have receipts.

The reason for the recap is that the New York Times is reporting that Donald Trump now privately admits that Gaetz doesn’t have much of a chance of being confirmed.

That’s not for lack of trying: Trump has been on the phone constantly with Senators lobbying for his pick. From the Times report:

Trump has admitted that his besieged choice for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, has less than even odds of being confirmed by the Senate. Trump has shown no sign of withdrawing the nomination, which speaks volumes about his mind-set.

The strategy [of presenting Gaetz to the Senate as the hardest nominee to confirm] has ensured that little focus stays on any single scandal. The caravan moves quickly on to the next, and the next, creating an overall blurring and flattening effect.

Trump’s other picks thus far are nearly as bad as Gaetz, and many for the same reasons. Pete Hegseth, the pick for Defense Secretary, is a documented serial cheater on his several wives; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services, has likewise been accused of sexual assault and his infidelity is also well-documented; Trump’s pick for Education Secretary, Lauren Boebert, took three tries to pass her GED test and is literally on video publicly groping her boyfriend in a highly-publicized scandal last year.

But Gaetz is a uniquely hard sell.

Back in 2008, Gaetz was arrested for drunk driving. That’s really not that big a deal, of course. Anyone who drinks alcohol is just one bad decision and stroke of bad luck away from the same thing. It’s estimated according to insurance records that some 10 million drivers in America have at least one DUI on their record.

Matt Gaetz is not among them. His charge mysteriously disappeared. During the arrest, he initially lied about having had anything to drink, then said the magic phrase that makes every drunk driver think the cops will leave them alone: “I had two beers.” Gaetz failed the follow-my-pen eye test twice, refused other field sobriety tests, and refused to take a breathalyzer.

Florida law mandates that a driver’s license must be suspended for no less than a year if you refuse a breathalyzer. Gaetz had his suspended for a fraction of that.

A Tampa Bay Times article about the DUI reported that “Less than a week later, Gaetz had his driver’s license reinstated. A field officer for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles declared there was no evidence that Gaetz refused a breath test. Yet the refusal was clearly documented in [the arresting officer’s] affidavit and arrest report. It even was documented in [Gaetz’s own attorney’s] Dec. 18 motion to dismiss charges against Gaetz.”

Did I mention that Gaetz took over the Florida state legislature seat that his father once held? Oh, and that the prosecutor’s stepson was friends with Matt?

But that’s all tame in comparison with what makes Matt Gaetz uniquely unsuited for the highest legal position in America.

It’s probably just easiest to refer you to Matt’s extensive Wikipedia entry (I know, I know, but they link every source) on the allegations currently against him. He is under investigation for a number of things, including “sexual misconduct and illicit drug use; sharing inappropriate images or videos on the House floor; misusing state identification records; converting campaign funds to personal use; and accepting impermissible gifts under House rules,” according to the New York Times.

What kind of misconduct came up in the past? Oh, just your normal, everyday sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. The kind you get investigated for when you and a friend try to pay the girl off after the fact. The kind, in fact, that the friend gets sentenced to 11 years in prison for, and only that little because of his cooperation with federal investigators against Matt Gaetz.

The Ethics Committee investigation has him alleged of having attended several drug-fueled orgies; showing nude photos to colleagues on the House Floor of women he claimed to have had sex with; and paying two other women for sex, one of whom testified she had seen Gaetz having sex with another 17-year-old who was a friend of hers.

During an interview with Tucker Carlson, Gaetz, in the course of denying the allegations about the 17-year-old, accidentally also denied having been photographed “with child prostitutes,” something he hadn’t even been publicly accused of (yet, apparently).

Are you as out of breath as me yet?

The whole point of Trump attempting to ram Gaetz through the confirmation process is primarily as a test of Senators’ loyalty. He wants to see first if they’ll just “obey in advance” and do anything he says, and failing that, if they’ll just let the recess appointment process happen.

Take heart, though. Despite Trump’s refusal to withdraw the nomination, an NBC News report is saying that “more than half” of Senate Republicans say they see no path for Gaetz to be confirmed.

We’ll see.