Dumb and inevitable.

The political media had been talking up Biden’s Senate networking skills while trying to sell him as another LBJ. Sure, Biden was a member of the Senate ole boy network, but he was also stupid, arrogant, and had a talent for alienating colleagues. Still that puts him well ahead of Senator Kamala Harris, not to mention whichever Obama vets decided that doing an end-run around Senator Manchin in West Virginia was a good idea.

After airing Thursday evening, WSAZ’s exclusive interview with Vice President Kamala Harris drew national attention.

Friday morning, the White House answered questions about the vice president’s appearance on two stations — one in Arizona, the other on WSAZ.

The interview even took U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., by surprise. Friday morning, Manchin visited one of West Virginia’s COVID-19 vaccination clinics. His visit comes just one day after the vice president spoke with WSAZ’s Amanda Barren about the proposed “American Rescue Plan” (ARP).

“I saw [the interview], I couldn’t believe it. No one called me [about it],” Manchin said. “We’re going to try to find a bipartisan pathway forward, but we need to work together. That’s not a way of working together.”

This may seem confusing, but the Biden team is rolling out its messaging operation to push its version of the relief bill in more conservative parts of the country.

For some inexplicable reason, the same team decided that Kamala Harris who, let’s face it, isn’t doing anything except complaining about magazine covers, should be the face of the outreach effort.

In West Virginia.

It also cut Manchin out of the loop while pitching a plan he doesn’t like. 

This may not sound like a big deal, but in D.C politics it’s a very big deal. It cuts Manchin out of the loop, it sends the message that the Biden admin is going to be stepping on his turf, and might even have thoughts about edging him off the reservation. It’s meant to be a power move, but Manchin is all but untouchable, unless the Washington Post manages to manufacture another sex scandal, and the Biden admin has alienated a Democrat whose support it actually needs.

This entire thing is dumb. And the dumbest part may be pitting Kamala Harris against Manchin in, I repeat, West Virginia.