The Washington Liberals? Really?

This week I received a mass email from an incumbent member of South Carolina’s Congressional delegation entitled “The Washington Liberals,” in which I was asked if I’d heard that he was the target of liberal attacks. Unsurprised that he would be, I read on as he discussed his agreement with the “Washington Liberals” that “this is a change election year.”

He noted that taxpayers were mad with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over the way they have “spent money hand over fist,” and over the fact that a “Democratically controlled Congress has kept us dependent on foreign oil and how their irresponsibility has led to this economic crisis.”

I’m certainly no fan of Ms. Pelosi or Mr. Reid. However, as a conservative, by this point in the email I must admit I was shaking my head thinking that the writer of the email was hoping to appeal to a mindset that may be dead. It is dunderheaded thinking that allows us to simply point the finger across the aisle and claim that all the problems have occurred in the most recent Congress, in which Democrats controlled both houses.

Spending money “hand over fist” was one of the primary reasons Republican leaders claim to have lost the majority in the 2006 election cycle. Ironically, this complaint on spending comes from a Congressman whose website proudly lists $700 Million in spending initiatives in the last budget cycle. Moreover, the failure to address looming energy issues has been a problem just as much in previous Congresses over the last decade when controlled by Republicans.

Everyone seems to agree that change is required. I think the change people seek is an environment where politicians admit that they may be as much at fault as the other party and then provide solutions.

Given the fact that most of the issues we face didn’t simply show up in the last two years, I think the proper approach for an incumbent who has served for the last seven years is to be more solutions-minded, showing that the experience counts for something other than having learned to simply shift the blame.