Hah, for serious? On Monday, we flagged that former Republican Rep. Karen Handel recently reported to the FEC she'd raised $238,000 in the first quarter of the year for her comeback bid for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. However, just a few weeks earlier, Handel had issued a press release claiming she'd pulled in $325,000 during this same timeframe. There was no logical explanation for the huge discrepancy, but Roll Call's Simone Pathé relays a patently illogical one from the Handel campaign: Her announcement "included money leftover from 2018."

But, you see, well, no. That's not how it works. Handel's release (which we've frozen in digital amber just in case someone tries to rewrite history) very, very explicitly "announced today a Q1 fundraising total of $325,000." "Q1"—that's short for "first quarter." And "first quarter" is short for "all the days from Jan. 1 to March 31, inclusive." Dec. 31? Forget it, you're out. Dec. 30? Don't even try.

But Karen Handel did try. She finished her unsuccessful 2018 re-election campaign with $88,000 left in the bank—a sum she was unwise to hang on to, seeing as she lost to Democrat Lucy McBath by just a 1-point margin. Handel's failure to "spend down to zero" (the first rule of all competitive political campaigns) did give her the slightest monetary head-start for her comeback bid, but here's the thing: She did not raise $325,000 in the first quarter. You'd have to violate the laws of physics to say otherwise, but that's one set of laws even Republicans can't break.