Mr. President: The U.S. Postal Service needs a thorough housecleaning, starting at the top

If U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy had even a shred of dignity, he’d see the winds of change blowing through Washington, D.C., right now and pull the plug on his embarrassing tenure as head of the country’s postal system.

For that matter, so would the postal service’s six-member Board of Governors — a majority of them appointed by the previous president — who stood by as DeJoy gutted an already beleaguered agency, causing Americans to now often wait weeks for their mail.

This board also sat on its hands while DeJoy, a major GOP donor, sabotaged postal delivery to curtail mail-in balloting in a failed attempt to get Donald Trump re-elected last November.

We understand President Joe Biden has a crowded agenda in his first weeks in office, including fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. But fixing the postal service must be made a priority, given the critical role it plays in delivering lab results, medicines or even stimulus checks on time.

That means getting rid of the agency’s failed leadership.

Biden can’t outright fire DeJoy because the postmaster general serves at the pleasure of the postal Board of Governors, not the president. But he can do one better. Biden has the legal authority to fire the board “for cause.” A new board could give DeJoy the bum’s rush he deserves and get a once-proud institution back on its feet again.

And we’re not alone in thinking this. U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr., a New Jersey Democrat and DeJoy critic, asked Biden on Monday to give the board the heave-ho. He said the board’s “betrayal of their duties . . . unquestionably constitutes good cause for their removal.”

“Through the devastating arson of the Trump regime, the USPS Board of Governors sat silent,” Pascrell said in a letter to Biden. “Their dereliction cannot now be forgotten. Therefore, I urge you to fire the entire Board of Governors and nominate a new slate of leaders to begin the hard work of rebuilding our Postal Service for the next century.”

The sooner Biden does this, the better. In a Jan. 4 video address to postal service employees, DeJoy hinted at more changes ahead.

“As we begin the new year, I want us to set a new tone,” he said.

But what’s the best way to set a new tone? Hand DeJoy and his board their walking papers.

Send letters to letters@suntimes.com.