Louis DeJoy is circling the drain
Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General and saboteur of the U.S. Postal Service, testified before Congress last week, and attempted to demonstrate that he’s not a partisan political hack who has no business running the Post Office. Like most things DeJoy has attempted, this was an utter failure.
DeJoy took offense when a Congressman referred to him as a Trump holdover, stating “I’m not a political appointee! I’d really appreciate it if you’d get that straight!” Technically, DeJoy is right; he was appointed by the Postal Service Board of Governors, which has authority to hire and fire him.
Yet last year, a federal judge held that DeJoy’s supposed cost-cutting measures – taking out mail sorting machines, removing mail collection boxes, eliminating overtime, and curtailing operating hours – were “an intentional effort on the part the current Administration to disrupt and challenge the legitimacy of upcoming local, state, and federal elections.” And then, of course, DeJoy lied about it when he testified to Congress. That sure sounds like a Trump appointee!
At the least, DeJoy could not plausibly contend that his changes were designed to make mail move more efficiently, though he tried to do so. Despite the Congressional firestorm over his controversial actions, DeJoy asserted that he would head the Postal Service for “a long time. Get used to me.”
However, he must have been measuring his future tenure in Scaramuccis, because, within hours, President Biden undercut that assertion by announcing his nominations to fill vacant positions on the Board with a former general counsel for the postal workers union, a former deputy postmaster general who handled mail-related policy issues for Biden’s transition, and the CEO of Vote at Home, which promoted mail-in voting. If these nominees are confirmed, the reconstituted Board could well put DeJoy’s continued tenure as Postmaster General in jeopardy.
