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W.Va. governor tries a brand of shuttle diplomacy

Shuttle diplomacy is not uncommon when crises among parties that cannot stand one another need to be averted. One can conceive of a mediator shuttling among North Korea, the United States, South Korea, Japan and China, for example.

But the stalemate — and yes, hard feelings — over a budget for West Virginia have come to the point that Gov. Jim Justice is resorting to that very tactic.

Members of the state Senate and House of Delegates left Charleston on Wednesday after another failed round of give-and-take over taxes. If anything, they appear further apart than ever.

Then, Justice unveiled a new initiative. As his office’s press release explained it, the governor was to “meet with the Senate President, the Senate Minority Leader, the Speaker of the House and the House Minority Leader in four separate rooms and travel from room to room as the mediator-in-chief. Justice wants to better understand the positions of each side.”

At this writing, how much success the governor was having was uncertain.

One drawback in Justice’s plan was apparent. Normally, shuttle diplomacy uses a neutral third party to mediate disputes. The governor is far from neutral. He has been at the forefront of the call for a substantial tax increase.

Still, good for Justice. Perhaps his brand of shuttle diplomacy can break the logjam. At this point, it’s worth a try.

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