“I easily can imagine my state, among the most partisan in the country, saying, “Hey that’s a wonderful idea. Let’s just impeach the judges/executives/whoever we don’t like and put our friends or, even better, ourselves in an office with lifetime tenure””

1. State Supreme Court Justices generally do not have lifetime tenure.

2. The West Virginia Supreme Court Justices were impeached for misappropriation of their official government budget. A perfectly legitimate reason for impeachment in my opinion.

3. Nation wide, impeaching State Supreme Court Justices is not that unusual. The only thing new/unique from the legislative side in the current West Virginia mess is impeaching the entire court all at once.

http://www.courtswv.gov/supreme-court/docs/fall2018/18-0816.pdf

Slate article: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/west-virginia-supreme-court-impeachment-constitutional-crisis.html

I did find this news article that has some additional explanation (with quoted text) of the perceived problems with the resolution of Impeachment and the procedures that were, or were not, followed.
https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/west-virginia-circuit-judges-sitting-as-justices-block-workman-impeachment/article_b4e277f1-701e-5305-912c-2bf54d40a400.html

The decision seems to have been focused more on procedural error than denying that the legislature has the power and authority to impeach these justices. It just has to accomplish that in accordance with the relevant rules. At least, that’s the way I read this.

From the article:
“The opinion goes on to say that “fundamental fairness requires this Court to review what has happened in this state over the last several months when all of the procedural safeguards that are built into this system have not been followed. In this case, there has been a rush to judgment to get to a certain point without following all of the necessary rules. This case is not about whether or not a Justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia can or should be impeached; but rather it is about the fact that to do so, it must be done correctly and constitutionally with due process. We are a nation of laws and not of men, and the rule of law must be followed.”

The opinion also laid out the six different ways the separation of powers is to work, and then noted that lawmakers “should not be dealing with the Code of Judicial conduct, which authority is limited to the Supreme Court of Appeals.”

Any justice refuting the will of the legislature to impeach should be arrested and charged with obstruction.

“Arrest them.”

I want to engage that comment, but I can’t tell who you want arrested for what.

Arrest them.