You’d be forgiven if you were to think that West Virginia only has one U.S. senator instead of two. Because based on appearances, Sen. Jim Justice appears to be doing the bare minimum.

Sure, Justice is casting votes. If he has missed any, I’m unaware. The same goes for committee meetings. Justice is attending meetings, casting votes, and sometimes making speeches, though many times those speeches have little to do with whatever the committee is discussing that day.

But is doing the bare minimum enough? One of my favorite movies is “Office Space.” In one scene, a server played by Jennifer Aniston working at a restaurant meant to be like an Applebee’s is asked by the restaurant manager why she is only wearing the bare minimum of buttons on her uniform. While she was not in trouble for wearing the bare minimum of “flare,” the manager made it clear he wanted to see the server do more than the bare minimum.

I guess in this scenario, I’m asking you to play the part of the manager and ask yourself whether Justice is fine doing the minimum or should he be doing more.

In Justice’s defense, perhaps there just isn’t much for a freshman senator to do in their first year. After all, if you’re wanting to meet with our two senators, is the priority meeting Justice or is it meeting Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia’s senior senator, fourth-ranked member of the Senate Republican majority leadership, chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and chairwoman of an Appropriations subcommittee?

One thing we do know that Justice is doing is taking private planes back and forth between West Virginia and D.C. According to Punchbowl News, Justice is using private flights on a nearly daily basis. In some cases, Justice is literally flying in just long enough to vote and then head back to Lewisburg.

From Punchbowl News looking at Justice’s flight schedule beginning Oct. 6 through Oct. 16:

“Last Monday, Justice took off from West Virginia at 4:41 p.m. and landed at DCA at 5:18 p.m. Just two hours and 26 minutes later — shortly after Senate votes — his plane was on its way back to Lewisburg.”

“On Tuesday, Justice took off at 4:28 p.m., landed in D.C. at 5:19 p.m. and was on his way back to West Virginia at 6:40 p.m.”

“On Wednesday, Justice came in a bit earlier. He left Lewisburg at 9:56 a.m., landed at DCA at 10:35 a.m. and headed back to the Mountaineer State at 9:10 p.m.”

“On Thursday, the plane took off at 10:38 a.m., landed in D.C. at 11:25 a.m. And Justice was back on board for a 9:50 p.m. flight, which landed at 10:26 p.m.”

Now, I get that the days in question were during the transitions from the second week of the federal government shutdown to the third week of the shutdown, so not much was going on in the Senate beyond voting for the House continuing resolution and the Senate Democrats’ continuing resolution. But these flights have been going on since he took office in January.

“To be perfectly honest, from my standpoint, it’s a pain to go back and forth,” Justice told Punchbowl News. I bet, but wouldn’t it be more cost-effective to find someplace to live in the D.C. area when he needs to be in? What is so urgent in Lewisburg that he needs to return to his own bed 260 miles away?

Justice’s communications director and even U.S. Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., dismissed the story as a nothingburger. I didn’t get the sense from the Punchbowl News story that it was being critical. They were following up on earlier reporting they did on Justice’s use of private air travel.

Assuming that we, the taxpayers, are footing the bill, shouldn’t we know how Justice is getting back and forth to Capitol Hill? Especially given that once again, several Justice family-owned properties are on the auction block in southern West Virginia for non-payment of property taxes. These properties include parcels around Justice’s Glade Springs resort. Again, Justice’s adult children manage his business empire, but seeing how Justice still has an unfettered line of credit from his businesses, how are these flights being paid for?

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The one thing we know Justice spent time doing on Capitol Hill last week was throwing a sixth birthday party for Babydog, his English bulldog companion he was gifted just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. It became the face of the state’s COVID vaccine campaign and before he left office, Babydog was even immortalized in one of the new State Capitol Building rotunda murals.

On Wednesday, Justice held a birthday party for Babydog — who has spent the last six months being carted around the U.S. Capitol Building by Justice’s private security paid for via campaign funds — in Justice’s offices on the fifth floor of the Hart Senate Office Building.

One might think it tone deaf to hold a birthday party for a dog, complete with cake pops and party favors, when there are federal workers and even Capitol Police officers working without a paycheck during the government shutdown. But there are videos showing the line of Senate staffers and even news reporters waiting to see Babydog going all the way around the fifth floor.

“This place needs to smile and be respectful of one another, and that’s what Babydog’s all about,” Justice told NOTUS last week. “I mean, she makes people smile, and she loves everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich, poor, Black, white, God forbid, Republican or Democrat.”