Editorial: Justice must accept the fact he can't do everything

Jim Justice's financial troubles continue. Everything points to him being a person who is in over his head by being a governor, running a variety of businesses and being a high school basketball coach all at the same time. He's spread too thin, and that's not good for him, the people who work for him or the people of West Virginia.

As Justice's time in the Governor's Mansion — on the rare occasions when his shadow darkens its doorstep — nears its end, it's well past time for Justice to choose which of his three roles he can fulfill adequately.

It may be too late, as every week or every day, even, brings new news of the many troubles his businesses face. He can't pay fines imposed on his mining companies, and The Greenbrier cannot pay its bills. Greenbrier employees have had money taken from their paychecks for health insurance, but The Greenbrier is behind on forwarding that money to their insurer. If workers' money is taken but not used for its intended purpose, that's the moral equivalent of theft, no matter what the intricacies of the law may say.

The Greenbrier also owes back taxes, some of which goes to the Greenbrier County school system where Justice coaches girls basketball. Sports are supposed to teach young people things they don't necessarily learn in a classroom. What lesson does this teach?

Amid all this, Justice is seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate. If he has trouble fulfilling all his duties here in West Virginia, how can he add the demands of national politics to his plate? Justice has shown he can be pretty thin-skinned when it comes to criticism. If he thinks he can avoid the barbs of the national press and the partisan press over all his troubles, he has another think coming. A lot of them, actually.

If Justice cannot decide which of his endeavors to devote his energy to, it could be up to the West Virginia Republican Party to do it for him. He might need the Joe Biden treatment, where senior party officials go to him privately and tell him it's time to focus or to get out. In one sense that would betray the thousands of people who voted for him in the primary, but it would be for the good of the state and the party. Technically it may be too late for that, but politicians know how to get around the laws they write.

West Virginia has a long list of memorable senators in recent memory — Jennings Randolph, Robert C. Byrd, Jay Rockefeller, Joe Manchin, Shelley Moore Capito. They were or have been focused on their Senate duties. They had other interests, but those interests never interfered with voters' perceptions of their ability to fulfill the duties of their office. From all appearances, Justice is not likely to be on that list.

One or the other. He can't do them all. Justice needs to decide what he can do and can't do, and for the good of the state act accordingly.