Government officials and other politicians continue to try navigating life in the time of the novel coronavirus, during which the efforts of unusual bipartisanship don’t completely mute the traditional brickbats of campaign operations.

Nowhere is that more obvious than the relationship between Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and the Trump administration as the state and federal government try to fight the COVID-19 outbreak that hit here first. To be sure, the “epicenter” and national media attention has moved on to New York, because nothing is more important to the national 24/7 news networks than what’s going on right outside their studio windows.

At the beginning of the outbreak, Inslee tweeted a shot across the bow of the administration, urging Vice President Mike Pence, the newly named coronavirus czar, to emphasize science. It had some wondering about biting the hand that might feed you.

When Pence arrived a week later at Camp Murray on Air Force 2, he was bearing gifts like personal protective equipment. Neither he nor Inslee would be drawn into a discussion of the tweet or say anything remotely critical about each other’s response to the virus. In subsequent public statements, Inslee has been nothing if not complimentary about Pence.

During a tour of the CDC a day after the Camp Murray summit, Trump referred to Inslee as “a snake” and said he wouldn’t have been so nice to him. The governor mostly shrugged it off and said he was getting good cooperation from the feds.

He was asking for the USNS Mercy hospital ship to be sent to Washington because the outbreak was further along here, but when the administration said it was being sent to California he said he was disappointed but emphasized the mobile hospitals coming to the state from the Army and FEMA.

Those parsing the public statements might have noticed Inslee rarely mentions his calls for people to put more distance between themselves through restrictions on gatherings or stay-home orders without saying Washingtonians “believe in science.” Whether state residents, as a whole, have a greater belief in science than any other state might be hard to prove.

But at least Inslee’s praise of his constituents’ shrewdness isn’t being followed by “… even if Trump does not.”

Folks tuning in to the president’s daily coronavirus press conferences prior to Friday might’ve noticed Trump seems reluctant to mention Inslee by name. He’s pretty free tossing out New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s and California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s names when talking about federal responses to the major state outbreaks, but it’s usually “… and the governor of Washington.”

The nation has 50 governors, so that’s better than “that snake of a governor in Washington” if Inslee’s name doesn’t come trippingly to Trump’s tongue.

On Friday, Trump took a more pointed shot at Inslee, again not by name, saying the governor of Washington was one who hadn’t been appreciative of him and what the federal government was doing and has advised Pence not to call. There’s no indication the vice president has dropped Inslee from his speed-dial list.

Thursday’s telephonic conference between the president and the governors was not open to the news media and public. The transcript obtained by some national news outlets said Inslee took a shot at Trump’s position that the federal government shouldn’t consider itself a “backup” for the states on efforts to obtain needed medical equipment.

“I don’t want you to be the backup quarterback, we need you to be Tom Brady here,” Inslee said, according to a report of the call by the Associated Press.

Anyone familiar with Inslee’s public speechifying knows he loves a good sports metaphor – and sometimes swings at a weak one – so the COVID-19 shutdown of all imaginable leagues is probably felt acutely by his speechwriters. (It is not true the Olympia press corps places bets on which sport he will use in his annual State of the State address; the press pool is currently so small that the pot wouldn’t be big enough to make it worthwhile.)

Inslee did not repeat the criticism of Trump or the federal response at a press conference later that day when given the opportunity. Instead, he merely said if the federal government would start ordering companies to make needed machines and supplies, rather than relying on volunteers, things might go faster, and if the feds took over the ordering, it might have “better buying power.”

The regional spokeswoman for the Trump re-election campaign apparently took umbrage at Inslee’s jab, but from a somewhat unusual angle.

“Leave it to Gov. Jay Inslee to wish for a washed-up quarterback like Tom Brady when a superstar like Russell Wilson is literally in his own backyard,” Samantha Zager said in a news release.

Leaving aside the fact that Wilson is not literally in the area behind the governor’s mansion – at best Seattle might figuratively be considered the front yard of the north-facing executive residence – it’s unthinkable Inslee or any other Seahawks fan would wish away Wilson.

Plus at 31, Wilson isn’t eligible to be president, while Brady, at 42, is.