Up on the U.S. House top?

Republican primary voters in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District apparently want to change a familiar yuletide song to “Santa Claus is Coming to Washington.”

Long-shot candidate Kerry Bentivolio — a reindeer rancher and former professional Santa Claus impersonator — recently won the GOP nomination for Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, which has been in GOP hands since 1967.

The unlikely political rise of Mr. Bentivolio, a Vietnam vet and teacher, began when five-term Rep. Thaddeus McCotter abruptly resigned last month. State officials ruled earlier this year that Rep. McCotter had filed more than 1,000 invalid petition signatures to get on the primary ballot, as required by Michigan law.

That left Mr. Bentivolio as the only House contender on the GOP primary ticket.

A staunch libertarian, Mr. Bentivolio presumably doesn’t want government to keep playing its miscast role of Santa Claus as the record national debt soars.

Too bad Mr. Bentivolio, who backed Ron Paul for the GOP presidential nomination, also has backed the appalling conspiracy theory that casts George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as the orchestrators of the 9/11 attacks.

Gee, that doesn’t sound like Jolly Old Saint Nick.

After Rep. McCotter quit, rightly frantic GOP officials in the suburban Detroit district enlisted former state legislator Nancy Cassis as a late write-in alternative to Mr. Bentivolio.

Too late: Though Ms. Cassic disparaged Mr. Bentivolio as “Krazy Kerry,” he rolled to victory and will face Democratic nominee Dr. Syed Taj — and maybe some more write-in candidates? — in November.

Oh well, there are also some surprising choices — and conspicuous absences — on South Carolina ballots this year.

And even the real Santa Claus can’t change that.