The temperature in Columbia was hot Thursday, but tempers in the Statehouse were even hotter as lawmakers slammed the governor for allowing two domesticated swine from a Lexington farm to defile the Capitol. Lawmakers were severely critical of the governor's grandstanding at their expense to make a point about the "pork barrel" politics used to override 105 of his 106 vetoes. Thursday the Senate overrode all but six of the governor's vetoes.
Speaker of the House David Wilkins decries Gov. Sanford's publicity stunt as nothing more than "the worst kind of politics," saying of the Capitol, "This is the people's house, it ought to be treated with dignity. I think he defiled it in order to get TV coverage. ... Obviously he doesn't have the same respect for this body as many of us do to bring livestock ... as we're seriously debating the people's business today."
Evidently cleaning up the "waste" from the pigs named "Pork" and "Barrel" was a lot easier than it will be to wash away the ill feelings that the episode has created.
But both gentlemen have a point. Wilkins is correct that the governor could and should have found a more statesmanlike way to get his point across. Poking fun at politicians can have a backlash much greater than the old-fashioned chiding the governor intended.
On the other hand, Gov. Sanford has a point, too. He has made a case since his State of the State address in January that the government should overhaul its spending practices.
For weeks Sanford has tried to get lawmakers to give more than a token nod to eliminating a $155 million budget deficit that he and they know is unconstitutional. By overriding nearly all the governor's vetoes, the House and Senate sent a message that they plan to give only a token effort to eliminating the deficit and repaying trust funds.
In his State of the State address the governor seeded his comments with names and praise for lawmakers across the state, trying not to alienate them, picking his battles ("discussions" as he calls them) wisely and moving on to other issues. His speech didn't reveal anything astonishingly new. He laid out his plan in his history-making executive budget.
He said the legislative year would be a success if he could achieve restructuring; it would be exceptional if he could get tax reform, which is a cornerstone of his economic development plan. In his campaign and last year, he focused on the need to make South Carolina competitive with neighboring states through tax reform and improvements in education.
Today, Sanford's plans to restructure government, cut income taxes, limit lawsuits and reform health care and education are in jeopardy as the legislative session ends.
The governor could have used more sophistication in his tactics to drive home his point about the pork-laden budget, but in the end he didn't break any laws. Continuing to ignore a deficit that is unconstitutional and the unwise spending of the taxpayers' money ignores the law and the public.
It's too bad the silly season set in so early in Columbia.