In the Daily Mail Opinion page of the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Cardinal’s executive director, Garrett Ballengee, makes the case that regardless of the outcome of the impeachment proceedings against 4/5 of the Supreme Court justices, the damage to West Virginia has already been done. A sample below:

“This is how polities decline. This is how economies decline. This is how a state becomes, and stays, a backwater.

Sadly, this is a familiar tune to the people of West Virginia. One might be forgiven for being lulled into believing that cronyism in West Virginia is a thing of the past, something a grandfather might mention on the front porch.

Alas, that’s a luxury enjoyed only by the ignorant.

The real scandal isn’t about an expensive couch, opulent flooring, or staff lunches. It’s about the schism between ‘them’ and ‘us.’

Rules for some; loopholes for others. It is a fundamental betrayal that weakens the bedrock of democracy and citizen government — taxpayer money, earned through blood, sweat and sore backs becomes the plaything of an entitled few.”