As I wrap up watching the recording of Louis DeJoy’s testimony yesterday in front of the US House Oversight Committee, I’ve come to the conclusion that he screwed this whole thing up.
Of course I’ve been blaming him for the delays for a while, but that’s not the screwup I’m talking about.
I’m talking about a blunder of the type and scale as what happened in Office Space: He thought he was making a small change that would matter later but that nobody would notice. By the time the election rolled around, the system would be so fouled up that there would be no way to reverse it.
The problem was that the effects were felt almost immediately. You know, pretty much like in Office Space.
It wasn’t supposed to be obvious now, and now it’s too late. Things have piled up. Medications are lost in transit. Baby chickens are dying! And not a peep from DeJoy in advance of calls for his resignation.
Sitting askew with his right arm slung over the back of the chair, he clearly can’t believe this has happened.
So either he’s incompetent, or he’s tanking the system.
My guess is that it’s the latter. I also didn’t know that his wife was nominated to be the ambassador to Canada, but this Salon.com article goes deeper into the campaign donations and how DeJoy and his wife are mad shady.
To be fair, DeJoy’s wife Aldona Wos was ambassador to Estonia a decade and a half ago under George W. Bush, but Canada is way more important than Estonia is. (Sorry, Estonia. Kinda.)
Anyway, it feels to me that this was supposed to be easier for him, and it was supposed to draw way less attention. DeJoy serves under a president who has used the phrase: “I would like you to do us a favor, though.”
What are the chances Trump has only used that phrase when talking to Volodymyr Zelensky?