Editor's note: This version corrects the spelling of the new commissioner's last name.

It's hard to imagine a government agency more dysfunctional than the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles.

But I now see one that comes close: The Democratic-controlled Connecticut Senate.

After all, how would you explain the almost unanimous vote of the Senate this week to confirm the misguided appointment of a new DMV commissioner, not the product of some exhaustive national search, but the second in command at the troubled agency, a genuine Connecticut crony.

The new commissioner appointed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Michael Bzdyra, was deputy commissioner under Andres Ayala, a former state senator from Bridgeport whom Malloy had named to the pension-turbocharging $160,000-a-year commissionership.

Ayala ran from the burning DMV in January, the flames of scandal lapping at his suit coat, as the media began to inquire about his giving a plum job to a convicted felon and approving a directive that denied that months of delays for new driver tests were caused by applications by undocumented immigrants, when indeed they were.

The driving public, of course, didn't need the media pursuing scandals to see the dysfunction of a department plagued by crippling wait times, computer shutdowns and erroneous revocation of vehicle registrations.

Recognizing the colossal failure of the agency, state Sen. Toni Boucher of Wilton, ranking Republican senator on the Transportation Committee, called on Malloy to search far and wide for a suitable replacement for Ayala, once the embattled commissioner finally resigned.

"Rather than make a purely political appointment, the administration should do a nationwide search to find a commissioner that will be able to resolve the troubling issues currently plaguing the Connecticut DMV," Boucher said.

Well, predictably, Malloy made a purely political appointment, someone who should be held accountable for the "troubling issues."

And Boucher went along with it this week, voting for confirmation with most of her fellow senators.

I would suggest that the greatest concern with Bzdyra is that he was second in command while the DMV melted down. It doesn't take a genius to see that new blood and expertise is needed at the top, which Sen. Boucher seemed to know before she voted.

Bzdyra is a former legislative aide and policy adviser to the Senate Democratic Caucus. He was also a legislative liaison while at the DMV.

He has no experience running an enormous bureaucracy, except for the one that went sliding down the tubes on his watch.

But of course Malloy naturally wants a political loyalist at the DMV, since Democrats are now proposing allowing the DMV to process voter registration.

Try to wrap your mind around that: The dysfunctional Connecticut DMV as an elections gatekeeper.

More troubling still, Bzdyra apparently has misrepresented his education on his resume for the last 20 years, saying he has a master's degree when he doesn't.

He disclosed this misrepresentation at the outset of a hearing on his commissionership appointment. He lacks two courses, he said, and never realized he didn't earn the degree he has been claiming all these years.

I would suggest this sudden burst of honesty could have had a lot to do with facing the klieg lights of scrutiny for a commissionership.

But senators this week, in praising his appointment, strangely saluted him as a hero for the disclosure that was apparently some 20 years in the making.

"This is the kind of forthrightness we want from people who work in state government," said Sen. Len Fasano, minority leader. "He's been around this building ... he understands how this place works."

Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney's remarks suggested he is not so worried about long lines at the DMV: "While to the public the DMV's reputation is not the best ... in terms of responding to legislative concerns, Mike always made sure the red tape and problems got cut through."

The lone brave vote against the confirmation came from Republican Sen. Henri Martin of Bristol, who told me Wednesday the issue of Bzdyra's degree led him to vote no.

"How do you not remember whether or not you got a degree?" Martin said.

Good question. Too bad he was the only senator asking it.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com