There is an old saying that “politics ain’t beanbag,” meaning that the political arena can be a rough and tumble place.

On one hand, I can understand West Virginia Democratic leaders jumping on the ill-timed nomination of former GOP candidate for governor and former lawmaker Moore Capito as the next U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia. On the other hand, I don’t believe it is deserved.

To make a long story short, President Donald Trump released a list of nominees Tuesday for various offices – including Capito for U.S. Attorney for the Southern District and Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Harvey for U.S. Attorney for the Northern District – within an hour of the 51-50 vote in the U.S. Senate on Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Democrats in the state very quickly tried to push the narrative that Moore Capito’s nomination was a quid pro quo to secure U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s vote on the Big Beautiful Bill and push the usual nepotism claims.

“The only job that this bill, the big ugly bill, has created was the job that Moore Capito was appointed to just four minutes after his mother voted to pass a bill out of the Senate,” said Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, the chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party.

No doubt, the timing of Trump’s announcement couldn’t have been worse. But anyone in politics or who writes about politics in the Mountain State has heard the rumors of Moore Capito’s impending appointment for U.S. Attorney since January. This was one of the worst kept secrets in West Virginia politics and I’m surprised the appointment hadn’t happened sooner.

As for quid pro quo, there isn’t much there. Senator Capito has been an ardent supporter of the main goal of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – extending the 2017 tax cuts from Trump’s first term – since the bill was first talked about. As part of the U.S. Senate Republican majority leadership, she has helped shepherd this bill along. As chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, she helped craft its provisions reversing much of the Inflation Reduction Act and its various green energy tax credits.

One can take issue with the various provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but it’s plain that Sen. Capito’s vote didn’t need to be secured in order to get to last week’s 51-50 vote (Vice President JD Vance had to break the 50-50 tie). Heck, Trump had already endorsed her for her 2026 U.S. Senate re-election in a Truth Social post in May.

And we’re not talking about someone who is unqualified for the post of U.S. Attorney. According to his bio on the Babst Calland website – the law firm where he works – Moore Capito is a 2005 graduate of Duke University and a 2011 graduate of the Washington and Lee University School of Law. In between, he was on staff at the U.S. Department of Defense and the White House under former President George W. Bush. He also served on the staff of the Majority Whip’s office in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2000s.

During his tenure in the West Virginia House of Delegates, Moore Capito served as vice chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and later served as its chairman, crafting and amending the State Code of West Virginia. He served on the Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia Advisory Council, the body that helped set the rules for the new court. He also co-chaired the West Virginia Law Institute Committee.

About the only area one can ding Moore Capito on is a lack of direct criminal prosecutorial experience. But he wouldn’t be the first U.S. Attorney with a similar background. Trump’s previous U.S. Attorney for the Southern District – current state Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Mike Stuart – also only had worked for large law firms. Several former U.S. Attorneys in the state list careers for major law firms in their bios.

The fact is that being at the top of the pyramid as U.S Attorney is akin to running a law firm in and of itself. Sure, the criminal cases handled by a U.S. Attorney get all the headlines, but the office also handles civil cases. And as U.S. Attorney, the job is about management and assigning cases to the most qualified assistant U.S. Attorneys. A U.S. Attorney sets the direction and the priorities of the office. They work with local, state and federal law enforcement.

One cannot fault the Democratic leaders in the state for getting their licks in. That’s what a minority party does. The family of former Republican Gov. Arch Moore has been a ripe target for Democrats since Arch Moore’s days as a congressman since the late 1950s.

Politics ain’t beanbag. Sen. Capito has known that since her days in the statehouse and her first contested races for the U.S. House in the early 2000s. Moore Capito has known that since his 2016 statehouse race and now his contentious six-person race for governor that saw former Attorney General Patrick Morrisey secure the nomination. Both Capitos have worked for what they’ve achieved.