Drip, drip, drip.
That’s the sound of revelations of wrongdoing, coming out with monotonous regularity like drops from a leaky faucet. And we’re not talking about Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or Spygate, either.
We’re talking about the arrogant justices on the West Virginia Supreme Court who felt they had the right to augment their ample salaries with taxpayer-funded perks of their own choosing.
Should a Supreme Court judge be provided with a state-funded, taxpayer-fueled vehicle? How about an opulently-furnished office? Wouldn’t it seem less shabby with some $500 throw pillows? Wouldn’t an expensive antique desk look better in a Supreme’s home? And isn’t it ok to use an state expense account for a lavishly catered cocktail party for peers? Why should a Supreme have to pay for that?
Drip, drip, drip.
That noise must be nerve-wracking for people used to dispensing justice, but unaccustomed to having justice meted out to them.
That’s just the noise that’s making it into the newspapers and the radio and TV broadcasts. Who knows what drips are dropping behind the closed doors of a grand jury room, where a federal investigation reportedly is now unfolding?
Some of our state Supreme Court justices must now be rethinking the wisdom of their self-indulgence. Maybe they didn’t really need a free car after all, or a home furnished with some public property. Maybe they could have gotten by with what they were originally provided at taxpayer expense. We’re sure that a complimentary vacation at a federal penitentiary is more freebies than they would ever want.
Where will it all end? No one knows, but rumors are rampant. “Speculation intensified as the week progressed that indictments were imminent,” radio talk-show host Hoppy Kercheval wrote last week in The West Virginia Record; “however, none was returned, or if there were indictments (I do not believe there were), they remained sealed.”
According to Kercheval, “it is not unreasonable to believe that the U.S. Attorney’s Office has offered plea deals” to several judges. There is nothing on the record concerning that, however.
And the drips keep dropping.