You could point and laugh at the Beltway, and you should, but since D.C. is involved, there will no doubt be some of your money involved at some point, too. Also, pity the poor normal people in the rest of Virginia who must endure the antics of Northern Virginia. Right now, they’re using other people’s money in an all-out brawl over… D.C. United.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is making a last-minute bid to persuade D.C. United to build its new stadium in Loudoun County, and the team’s ownership — despite having spent more than two years negotiating a deal for a D.C. stadium — appears to be listening.

In the past three weeks, team officials have toured sites in Loudoun County, lunched with a Loudoun supervisor in New York and hosted a meeting with Virginia economic development officials at the team’s offices at RFK Stadium.

Officials with the commonwealth and Loudoun County believe they can deliver a stadium more quickly and less expensively than the District, which late last year approved a package for a stadium in Southwest of up to $150 million in land and infrastructure plus an additional $43 million in forgone tax revenue.

I mean, if you’re gonna throw around ludicrous amounts of money on professional sports teams, and you never should, at least do it on an NFL team. McAuliffe is trying that, too, of course.

Much as they did for the Washington Redskins, which is also seeking a new stadium, McAuliffe’s economic development team, led by Secretary of Commerce Maurice Jones, pitched United on sites in Woodbridge and Loudoun County.

Maybe we can build a gondola from D.C. to the D.C. United stadium in Loudoun. With your money. (This is a real thing. No really.)