Even lawmakers called it the "kitchen sink" and the "Christmas tree" bill.

By any name, it is terrible legislation and Gov. Mark Sanford did his duty by turning thumbs down ...

Failure to sustain the governor's veto was a blow to a responsible legislative process.

The fact is the so-called Life Sciences bill never should have gotten out of the Senate. As finally passed, the bill violates in multiple ways the legislative rules against bobtailing, a ploy that involves adding controversial riders onto popular legislation as a way to get them passed.

Obviously that's bad business, particularly in this instance when some of the bobtails were added by the conference committee without benefit of any semblance of debate.

Even worse, it would appear to violate the constitutional provision that every act "relate to but one subject." ...

The bill started out as an economic development measure with provisions that enjoyed widespread support ...

It ended up, as the governor noted in his veto message, a very flawed piece of legislation with numerous "tack-ons" and "each containing their own complex policy consideration." ...

A property owner whose land is taken by a college without his consent could well decide to challenge the validity of this "kitchen sink" piece of legislation in court, and win.

The legislature should have heeded the governor's concerns and started this legislative process over again.