We'll always have Monaco

W. Va. Supreme Court chief justice and friend to dirty coal loses reelection bid

Posted by David Roberts at 9:19 AM on 14 May 2008

Read more about: politics | state politics | West Virginia | shenanigans | elections

Remember Spike Maynard? He was the chief justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court, the one caught canoodling around the Caribbean with mountaintop mining executive Don Blankenship -- and some young women to whom, suffice to say, they were not betrothed -- while Blankenship's company, Massey Energy, had a case before the court. Maynard said he just happened to run into Blankenship in Monaco. (These things happen, right?)

Spike got booted from that case, but he dragged an anti-Massey judge with him, so Massey ended up winning anyway.

Now the universe has surprised everyone by coughing up a little justice: Maynard has lost his reelection bid.

Said his opponent, newly bejudged and bewildered Menis Ketchum, "I did not expect to do near as well as I did." The results are "sending the message that the public wants a court that is judicial."

So true.

For story: We'll always have Monaco
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Avalanches of cash

The amount of money these WV judicial candidates spend on their campaigns is just amazing. Half a million per candidate!! I don't know about other parts of the country, but I'd be surprised if judges in my area spend one percent of that amount on their campaigns.

Ped Shed Blog

by Laurence Aurbach at 12:43 PM on 14 May 2008

A friend recently said ...

referring to "the ongoing war on nature"

West Virginia is a major theater war worth of all the assets that could be thrown at it!

by LGT at 8:28 PM on 14 May 2008

bejudged, bothered and bewildered

What a name!: Menis Ketchum! And what a suitable respondent to his/her (?) predecessor's name, Spike Maynard!

"Menis," an archaic Greek noun, appears in the accusative form ("Menin") as the very first word in the very first literary work written in the very first literary language of Europe, Homer's "Iliad."

As everyone will remember, the first line goes, "Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles son of Peleus." "Wrath" is the usual translation of "Menin," which in fact is the first word in the Greek text ("Menin aeide, Thea, Peleiadeo Achilleos"; in inflected languages, word order is a matter of some indifference). One recent translator wanted to chuck "wrath" and go with "overpowering pique," but Brad Pitt's agent bought him off.

So one cannot help wondering how that couple from West Virginia, presumably, and presumably of high culture, named their child "Menis." Because the word has a strong meaning and connotation, it is not quite analogous to naming a child "In," for the first word of the Bible (Genesis 1.1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ... ").

More problematic for this child, as he/she grew up, is the fact that "Menis" presumably rhymes with "penis," and shares all the letters save one of that very interesting but not always presentable noun.

The Freudians out there can make the leap to the first name (apparently a nick-name: very interesting!) of ex-Justice Maynard.

As a wiser man than I has said: These things happen, right?

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 10:10 PM on 14 May 2008

Pompous ass...

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 10:16 PM on 15 May 2008

the location of Monaco

I want to thank you, as a West Virginian, for the title of this piece. I enjoyed it. But I do want to point out that Monaco is not in the Caribbean, it's on the Mediterranean.

by mwildfire at 8:39 AM on 20 May 2008

seas not interchangeable

Right you are, MWildfire: If DR was indeed suggesting that Monaco is somewhere on the Caribbean, as a fair reading might allow, then that is indeed a blooper. I kind-heartedly gave him the benefit of the doubt, and assumed that there was a Caribbean escapade in addition to the get-away to Monaco.

It was not one of his better moments. "Canoodling" is used as a euphemism for being involved with someone in an affair d'amour:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/canoodle.

The plain reading of "Maynard ... canoodling ... with Blankenship," their lady-companions being a grammatical afterthought, is that the two guys are the item. But presumably, each guy/girl couple went apart from time to time, as hetero couples are wont to do.

The scandal (if that is what it amounts to) would be far juicier, of course, if it turned out that the guys WERE indeed more than just friends, and that the two ladies were brought along to be respectable escorts at dinner, or to make sure they took their medicines on time, or some such.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 9:03 AM on 20 May 2008

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