We Still Want Some Answers From The Postmaster General, And The President

Even With Louis DeJoy saying he’s slamming the brakes on further service changes between now and Election Day, we still want to know:

• Why he didn’t have the common sense to know it wouldn’t be a good idea to noticeably slow delivery, and rip out sorting machines and mailboxes, during an election, during a pandemic?

Is it because the President’s used to thinking he and “his guys” can get away with anything? After all, seems like we barely remember he was impeached, and that was this year!

• And forget about promises about no more changes: is DeJoy going to put things back together the way they were before he started tearing them apart? At least in terms of personnel, he certainly can’t, because he’s already shuffled dozens of senior management people around (and out).

Senator Joe Manchin (D) WV, hits it on the head when he says:

We all know that if the American people and members of Congress had not pushed back on these unacceptable changes, the Administration would have continued on as they have been.”

Meanwhile, Trump Tweets:

WHAT?!

After he’s repeatedly lambasted the Postal Service, calling it dumb, and poor, and “a joke”?

Need any more proof that the President cares about nothing but getting himself re-elected at all costs? And will take any position on anything if it polls well for him and pleases his base, because he doesn’t really care about anything other than his own self-aggrandizement?

Oh, and one more thing: if you needed definitive proof that what triggered Trump’s (until recently) vitriolic attacks on the Postal Service came from anything deeper than wanting to mete out punishment on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for daring to own the Washington Post, because Amazon has a big contract with the USPS, we point you to Trump’s Democratic National Convention counter programming mini-rally in Minnesota this week. Where he can’t help, when he talks about Amazon, referring to the company as “him”.

Behind the President: a lot of jockeying on Capitol Hill, where Republicans incredibly, suddenly are trying to take credit for themselves for “saving” the Postal Service, when actually except for Mitt Romney, they by-and-large stood by and said nothing, even as the President attacked mail-in voting and then outright admitted he nixed support for the postal service in order to hobble it.

To that end, the Republican controlled Senate—specifically the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Chaired by Senator Ron Johnson (R) WI, who’s made no secret of working overtime to smear Joe Biden and boost Trump in the run-up to the Presidential election—set a hearing with Postmaster General DeJoy for this Friday, jumping the line ahead of the Democratically-controlled House, which had already called DeJoy in for testimony Monday.

This gambit, we guess, serves a few purposes:

  • It gives Republicans a forum to promote their message that they’ve been “for” the Postal Service all along; what they were against is Democrats lavishing money on it (as they always do), that it doesn’t really need.
  • It puts a damper on any afterglow from the Democratic National Convention, which closes the night before the Senate hearing. Trump laments it’s Democrats who are “playing games” by calling DeJoy next Monday, as the Republican National Convention is about to kick off, which is completely true. But at the same time, that’d only be mimicking one of Trump’s most patented moves. And it’s not like he’s hunkered down in Washington this week putting on a show of working hard, leaving Democrats to do their thing: he’s out traveling around swing states, doing mini-rallies, very deliberately trying to take away the Democrats’ thunder during their own convention.
  • And also, candidate for Vice-President Senator Kamala Harris (D) CA is on that Senate committee, so it thrusts her into the spotlight in a setting which she does not fully control. Definitely a risk on Republicans’ part. But one they may feel they need to take, since she’s clearly energized the Democrats’ ticket.

Ending on a bit of a side note, we also need to remember when people talk about mail-in voting vs. voting in person, or leaving their ballots in an officially sanctioned drop box, they are not talking about doing anything illegal or even shameful. It depends on the laws of each state, but in most states, no-excuse absentee voting is sanctioned by the state, and is perfectly OK. It’s only the President lately making it seem it’s not. So a voter availing themselves of that option is not engaging in a subversive act of any kind, and is not any less of a citizen than someone who shows up in person. No matter how many times Trump suggests it is; doesn’t make it so.