Elmer Berry picked the wrong issue on which to take a stand.

The embattled chairman of the Androscoggin County Commission, for some inexplicable reason, decided to question the attendance of several deputies at memorial services in Washington, D.C., for Sgt. David Rancourt, a longtime Androscoggin County officer and military veteran who died on the job earlier this year.

In a letter to towns, Berry tried to say the trip exemplified inflated staffing demands by Sheriff Guy Desjardins.

In doing so, Berry only proved his lack of knowledge, and judgment, about how the sheriff’s office operates, and gave his critics ample ammunition to call for his resignation.

Berry has apologized for the remark, but he still had no reason to question the trip. His opposition to an additional patrol deputy was known, and his denials to discuss the issue showed his mind-set is cemented. After all, it was Berry who accused the sheriff of turning this issue into a “spectacle.”

Whom can he blame now?

With this letter, Berry took to the offensive in the county commission’s power struggle with Desjardins, and insulted the sensibilities of the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department, and law enforcement in general, in the process.

It was a colossal mistake.

Worst of all, the letter again brought the uncrossable divide between the commission and the sheriff into sharp focus. All Berry needed to do, before writing the letter, was call Desjardins and ask about the trip, and the sheriff would have explained his reasoning and actions. That didn’t occur.

Instead, Berry decided to use the trip to prove a political point, and shattered hopes of resurrecting any semblance of a working relationship between the board and sheriff’s office. Whatever political capital Berry hoped to gain from his ill-advised letter is now irrevocably lost.

Towns are upset. Union members want him to resign. We’re positively bewildered. Berry brought this criticism upon himself by reigniting the controversy in his letter to towns. The remaining question is simple: Why?

Why would a political veteran like Berry, who has served on many levels of government, use the tragic death of an officer simply to prove he’s right, and the sheriff wrong? Why would he choose now, several months into the debate, to assume the offensive, and take his case against the deputy position to the towns?

Why, Commissioner Berry?