House leaders have been complaining for months about sending the Senate so-called "clean bills" only to have them returned with unrelated amendments known as "bobtails." In a story in The State newspaper Friday, a number of senators took issue with the finger-pointing their way. We'd say there's plenty of blame to go around.

Indeed, Spartanburg Sen. Jim Ritchie noted in The State story that it was the Senate that led the 2000 fight against bobtailing non-germane items to the annual budget bill and Charleston Sen. John Kuhn pointed out that it was the House that added a controversial seat-belt law to a bill involving driver's licenses for the hearing impaired.

There is no question, however, that the Senate is mostly responsible for the so-called Life Sciences Act being known as the "kitchen sink" bill. That bill not only was loaded down with multiple unrelated and controversial items in the Senate, matters were made worse by a conference committee of House and Senate members. Gov. Mark Sanford not only vetoed the bill -- which was promptly overridden -- but has threatened to legally challenge the constitutionality of the new law.

As we have previously noted, it wouldn't be the first time bobtailing has been so outrageous the courthouse has seemed the only remedy. The state Chamber of Commerce went that route nearly two decades ago to stop the practice of adding major, unrelated legislation to the state Appropriations Bill. Much of the time, those so-called bobtails, or "rabbits," were major pieces of legislation that couldn't pass on their own and were added at the last minute with little or no debate. It's simply no way to make law.

But it was in the Chamber's best interest, just as it is the governor's, to get along with the Legislature. In the mid-1980s, the Chamber decided to give new Statehouse leadership a chance, and withdrew its lawsuit. Former House Speaker Robert Sheheen recalls signing an informal pledge, along with then-Lt. Gov. Nick Theodore and Gov. Carroll Campbell, at the Chamber's request. The pledge, he said, promised that the presiding House and Senate officials would strictly enforce the constitutional requirement that amendments to legislation be germane and the title of the bill reflect the content. The governor agreed to veto legislation that failed to meet those tests. Unfortunately, the strict constructionists no longer are running the House or the Senate.

Instead, we read comments in The State like that of House Majority Leader Rick Quinn of Richland: "Bobtailing is an esoteric thing. One man's poison is another man's gold." We'd say, bobtailing is an illegal thing that is prohibited, for very good reasons, by the state constitution.

Gov. Sanford decided after a contentious session with legislators last week to put his threatened lawsuit on hold and see what action, if any, the lawmakers take to remedy the problem. Any action the General Assembly takes must be more binding than the informal pledge that was given to the Chamber 18 years ago that, unfortunately, seems to have been long forgotten.

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