Humpty Ducey has a great fall ... from his border container wall

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has been enjoying what amounts to several months of paid vacation before he leaves office.

He can’t seek reelection.

He has nothing to do.

He could be pounding the pavement in support of fellow Republican Kari Lake, the party’s candidate for governor.

That’s what you might have expected since he is the co-chairman of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), which tries to get GOP candidates elected. But … Ducey was an ardent supporter of Lake’s opponent, Karrin Taylor Robison. He correctly called Lake a “fake,” saying she was “misleading voters” about election integrity and claiming that her whole campaign was “an act.”

What Ducey got for not joining the Trump cult

Unfortunately for Ducey, Republican politicians willing to speak the truth about Trump-cult Republicans don’t fare well these days.

Lake is Trump zombie.

And Trump does NOT like Ducey.

So, with nowhere to go and nothing to do, the governor decided he would have a little fun and waste 13 million taxpayer dollars on a phony political stunt.

In his spare time: Ducey, Pence appear with Blake Masters

He ordered shipping containers to be stacked one on top of the other and placed in some gaps along the border with Mexico.

Then he put on his big boy jeans and staged a photo op of himself standing in front of them and saying, “We will continue to make significant progress to step up where the federal government refuses to. Arizona filled the gap, literally, and with these shipping containers, we are saying enough.”

Although that probably wasn't what he was thinking.

I'd guess that deep down Ducey was thinking, “I’m bored and feeling useless and, hey, it’s not my money.”

We'll pay for his border wall publicity stunt

Now we find out, by way of an article by The Arizona Republic’s José Ignacio Castañeda Perez, that not only was Ducey’s Humpty Dumpty border wall ineffective and wildly expensive, it also was illegal.

A federal contract exists to plug border wall gaps and, according to a letter sent to Ducey’s office by the Bureau of Reclamation, “The unauthorized placement of those containers constitutes a violation of federal law and is a trespass against the United States. That trespass is harming federal lands and resources and impeding Reclamation’s ability to perform its mission.”

Which means, I guess, that taxpayers who are stuck with the $13 million to put up the useless bits of wall will now get stuck with the whopping bill to remove Ducey’s debacle. And then get hit with another bill to properly fill the gaps.

Meanwhile, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men cannot put Ducey’s reputation together again.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gov. Doug Ducey has a great fall from his border container wall