If I were a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party, I'd be be pretty miffed at US Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA, 1).

After yesterday's giant state budget news—revenues are now predicted to fall $1.4 billion short—Inlee's rival in the pending 2012 governor's race, state Attorney General Rob McKenna, issued a statement.

Here it is:

The announcement today that state revenue will only grow by $2.1 billion during the current two-year budget period - rather than by the $3.5 billion projected in June for the budget which took effect less than three months ago - is a sobering reminder that state government cannot spend money faster than it comes in. It is long past time to bring spending down to sustainable levels.

The deep hole that has been dug by those unwilling to change their over-spending ways must be filled. Last month, I suggested the state must focus on its core services – ‘education, public safety, social services for the most vulnerable, and maintaining public essentials from roads to natural resources.’ I renew the call I made then, on the Governor and our state’s legislative leaders, ‘to develop a strategic budget plan to erase that deficit, then call a limited special session to implement those changes.’

We do not have the luxury of waiting until sometime next year to face this reality, and we must not rely on an across-the-board approach which ignores the priorities our state should have when spending taxpayer dollars.

The people of Washington State deserve a sustainable budget, which can see us through good times and bad.

Inslee? Radio silence. There are murmurs among local Democrats that Inslee, who's spent the last decade-plus immersed in federal issues back in DC, doesn't have a handle on state issues. Yesterday's silence shows there's something to those murmurs.