CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The head of the state's Democratic Party, lawyer Nick Casey of Charleston, has been recommended by U.S. Sens. Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller to be a federal judge. If President Obama accepts their recommendation (and there's no reason to think he won't) and the Senate goes along (an almost certainty), Casey soon will be hearing federal cases in the Eastern Panhandle.

Some Republicans, including Eastern Panhandle delegates Craig Blair and Jonathan Miller, would have you believe this is an outrage, because of Casey's politics and geography. They say he shouldn't be nominated because he lives outside the Panhandle.

If they truly believe this argument, then it's surprising they didn't protest three years ago, when a similar situation unfolded.

In 2000, Thomas E. Johnston was the Republican chairman in Ohio County, in the Northern Panhandle, and was a coordinator for the Bush-Cheney campaign.

Once Bush was in the White House, Johnston was named U.S. attorney for West Virginia's Northern District. Whatever Johnston's qualifications, it would be foolish to suggest politics didn't play a role in his selection.

(Witness the disastrous nomination of Kasey Warner, brother of the state GOP chairman at the time, for the U.S. Attorney job in Charleston.)

Five years later, Johnston was tapped by Bush and U.S. Rep. Shelley Capito to be a federal judge in the state's Southern District, based in Beckley.

We don't remember Republicans being upset about Johnston's partisan political past when he was recommended as a federal judge. We don't remember them saying anything about the incongruity of a lawyer based in Wheeling taking a seat on the bench in Beckley (the cities are about the same distance apart as Charleston and Martinsburg).

Johnston was confirmed as a federal judge by the U.S. Senate on an 89-0 vote. Casey deserves no less.    

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The head of the state's Democratic Party, lawyer Nick Casey of Charleston, has been recommended by U.S. Sens. Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller to be a federal judge. If President Obama accepts their recommendation (and there's no reason to think he won't) and the Senate goes along (an almost certainty), Casey soon will be hearing federal cases in the Eastern Panhandle.

Some Republicans, including Eastern Panhandle delegates Craig Blair and Jonathan Miller, would have you believe this is an outrage, because of Casey's politics and geography. They say he shouldn't be nominated because he lives outside the Panhandle.

If they truly believe this argument, then it's surprising they didn't protest three years ago, when a similar situation unfolded.

In 2000, Thomas E. Johnston was the Republican chairman in Ohio County, in the Northern Panhandle, and was a coordinator for the Bush-Cheney campaign.

Once Bush was in the White House, Johnston was named U.S. attorney for West Virginia's Northern District. Whatever Johnston's qualifications, it would be foolish to suggest politics didn't play a role in his selection.

(Witness the disastrous nomination of Kasey Warner, brother of the state GOP chairman at the time, for the U.S. Attorney job in Charleston.)

Five years later, Johnston was tapped by Bush and U.S. Rep. Shelley Capito to be a federal judge in the state's Southern District, based in Beckley.

We don't remember Republicans being upset about Johnston's partisan political past when he was recommended as a federal judge. We don't remember them saying anything about the incongruity of a lawyer based in Wheeling taking a seat on the bench in Beckley (the cities are about the same distance apart as Charleston and Martinsburg).

Johnston was confirmed as a federal judge by the U.S. Senate on an 89-0 vote. Casey deserves no less.