DURING HIS ill-fated run for governor in 1974, Pug Ravenel called the South Carolina General Assembly a "den of thieves."

Overly harsh? Of course. Unfair? Absolutely. Yet in some ways, based on what we've seen in recent days, he was overly optimistic.

Thieves, as contemptible as they are, at least exhibit such useful traits as initiative, flexibility, daring and the ability to make up their minds about what to do, and go ahead and do it.

Our Legislature, as a group, is utterly lacking in those traits, all of which are sorely needed in this budget crisis. And it appears that our governor, Mark "Bermuda" Sanford, is no Ali Baba himself.

We are witnessing a descent into madness. Our government is failing us utterly. The foolishness on display is beyond words, beyond satire.

Consider:

• They can't bring themselves to pass the cigarette tax hike, even though most people want it. Even though it would provide a permanent funding source for medical care for the poor -- something that the temporary infusion from Washington announced on Friday won't do (an infusion that, by the way, our lawmakers can take no credit for). The Republicans won't go for it because it's a tax increase. The Democrats won't go for it because there's a future tax decrease attached (one that wouldn't kick in for five years). The governor insists upon the promise of a tax decrease. He says he can't get the package through the House any other way. The House won't pass it without the tax cut because the governor says he would veto it. Ready to tear your hair out yet?

• Senators decided, suddenly and utterly without warning, to call an official halt to the educational progress we've made in the past five years by gutting the body in charge of reform, the Education Oversight Committee.

• We now have a consensus between the House and the Senate that we should set education back 25 years. By reducing per-pupil funding to less than the inflation-adjusted equivalent of the 1977 level, our "leaders" would take us back to the days before we even tried to provide equality of educational opportunity in our state.

• House leaders have been whispering about a plan to replace some property taxes with additional sales taxes, and in the process patching the huge hole they have blown in school finances. But they won't do it. Why? Because various narrow interests keep saying they don't like it. Hey, I've got problems with it, too -- reducing the ability of local governments to pay for schools is a huge step toward reducing local control. But at least have the guts to bring the idea out so we can talk about it. You don't have to get everybody to love it before having a debate. Honest.

• What could be worse than refusing to even debate that plan? I'll tell you: The Senate wasted three hours Thursday debating a Bizarro version of it. This one would have eliminated property taxes altogether, thereby turning the state's tax structure inside out and basically eliminating the ability of counties and cities to govern themselves. And what would we get for that? About $58 million in extra revenue, bringing per-pupil funding up to a little more than $1,700. The 1977 level was, in 2003 dollars, more than $2,200. This is how they spend their time.

• They can't bring themselves to do away with the sales tax cap on cars, even though that is cited most often by the average citizen as one of the really unfair things in our whole tax system. Why not? Because car dealers don't like it. Let's just move on.

• After initially failing to pass a budget that met our minimal needs, senators said they would give themselves three more days before giving up. They gave up after one day.

They got disgusted, threw up their hands and went home. Well, they should stay there, until they're willing to come back and get serious. And when they do come back, they should stay until they have passed a budget that meets today's essential needs and keeps the promises we've made to our children's future.

Meanwhile, the governor took off to Bermuda. (Yes, I know he had made a commitment to be there, and he was only gone one full day, and he worked the phones while he was gone. He still shouldn't have gone.) Here's hoping he returned with something he lacked before -- the will, the ability and the ideological flexibility to lead our state, because the leadership certainly isn't coming from anywhere else.

The Republican Party controls the State House -- the House, the Senate and the governor's office. Republicans are no longer in the position of back-bench bomb-throwers. They have to govern.

When you're out of power, it's all very well to pontificate about keeping taxes low and stopping the "growth of government." Abstract concepts are great; they're my stock in trade. But there's such a thing as concrete problems.

And when you're in charge, you're faced with the unassailable, ugly fact that in its entire history, this state has never provided enough in the way of governmental services to give all of us a shot at a life as good as what people enjoy in the rest of the country. There's a reason why we're last where we want to be first and first where we want to be last -- our government has failed us.

And now, thanks to our current Legislature and governor, we're about to go backwards.

That would be just fine with some Democrats -- which is why some of them have been refusing to negotiate in good faith -- but it wouldn't be fine with most of us out here in the real world, dealing with its real problems. I don't want somebody to blame. I want somebody to fix this mess.

And there are no excuses for failing to do so.