The Olympian picks up the good word from those paragons of the liberal media, Forbes magazine. Forbes gave Washington state a gold star earlier this month for our dramatically improved business climate.

This morning’s Olympian editorial spells out the bad news for the GOP. The Republicans and Dino Rossi campaigned in 2004 on the notion that the Democrats were bad for the economy. The GOP has continued to hit that theme in the run up to 2008. Whoops.

The Olympian writes:

More subjective was a Forbes Magazine ranking that said Washington has one of the best business climates in the country. Forbes.com ranked Washington fifth among the “best states for business,” up from 12th place a year ago — the largest leap of any state in the nation. Forbes said, “Washington is also the only state to finish in the top five in three main categories (labor, regulatory environment and growth). And Washington’s numbers are up across the board when you look both backward and at projections into the future.”

That’s a tough pill for state Republicans to swallow because they always claim Washington is an anti-business state with high taxes and overly burdensome regulatory environment. The Forbes ranking, while subjective, shoots a giant hole in that argument.

Poor Esser is left to excuses: “Anytime you’re governor and good things happen, you’re going to take credit for it, regardless of your party. When you unpeel the onion a bit, you’ll see a fuller story,” Esser said. He claims Gregoire “stumbled into a good economy.”

Maybe so, but the economic vitality of Washington state is hard to deny:

• Tax revenue continues to roll in. Since Gregoire took office in 2005, the 10 quarterly forecasts have risen by $3.2 billion.

• Foreign trade is booming.

• Boeing just rolled out its new 787 Dreamliner and will continue to head the export parade,

• At 4.6 percent, Washington is enjoying one of the lowest unemployment rates in 30 years.

• Tourism is on the incline. Seattle was recently ranked by AAA as the third favorite tourist destination in the country for the summer of ’07.

• The state has $1.2 billion in reserves and voters are expected to approve a constitutionally protected rainy day fund at the ballot box this fall.

Whether it’s solid political leadership, luck or a proper alignment of the stars, it’s clear that Washington state’s economy is hitting on all cylinders. While Democrats ride the wave of success Republicans are left relegated to the sidelines — just like last fall’s election.

This is bad bad bad for Dino Rossi’s pending campaign for governor. His only move is to try and take credit for the state’s improved business climate by pointing to the Locke/Rossi budget from 2003—which, perhaps, set the come back in play … ?

Problem is: the Locke/Rossi budget from 2003 represents the same “out of control” growth (according to the Republicans) as the Gregoire budget from 2007.The GOP’s been bashing Gregoire’s budget for being out of control. Can’t have it both ways, guys.