Republican Gov. Mark Sanford's potential 2006 opponents launched bipartisan criticism of him on Tuesday, a day after Time magazine declared Sanford one of the nation's three worst-performing governors.

Sanford told The Greenville News that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, noting that the conservative National Review has designated him one of the nation's most effective governors and the Libertarian Cato Institute named him the third best freshman governor and fifth best overall.

"We've been fighting to lower taxes and the weight of government on people's respective shoulders. Is it a good thing or a bad thing?" he asked rhetorically.

Sanford has dismissed the article as the product of a left-leaning publication and questioned how it arrived at the rankings.

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Democratic state Sen. Tommy Moore of Clearwater said he would "leave the acid words to someone else," then said the article would mean "that a lot of people outside South Carolina will now know what a lot of us in South Carolina already know."

Moore's Democratic primary opponent, Florence Mayor Frank Willis, said the article exposed Sanford as "a do-nothing governor."

The Democrats were no harder on Sanford than his Republican primary challenger, Prosperity physician Oscar Lovelace, who said Sanford has "failed to lead our state."

"I hope people will look at my candidacy and my platform and realize help is on the way," Lovelace said, criticizing Sanford for "continued bickering with legislative leaders" that is holding the state back economically.

"This is not going to make us look inviting to industry looking to settle here," Lovelace said.

Moore reiterated his concern about what he said was Sanford's lack of vision and South Carolina's inability to afford four more years with Sanford at the helm, given the state's high unemployment rate, low per capita income and loss of its AAA credit rating.

Willis said Time "underscored what I've been saying, that the governor is not moving the state forward in any way whatsoever. We've lost that AAA credit rating; we've dismantled the Department of Commerce; we're losing jobs on a steady basis."

Sanford said his opponents are entitled to their opinions but are overlooking "more jobs recruited" by his Department of Commerce than any other did over the last 20 years.

Sanford said, "So the notion that trying to push for change in Columbia causes consternation and sometimes scares off economic prospects is at odds with what the data show."

The five top-rated governors, according to the magazine, were Democrats Mark Warner of Virginia, Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Republicans Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Kenny Guinn of Nevada.

Sanford previously said that most of the five governors cited as "the best" in America sought tax increases.

According to Time, Sanford's two colleagues in the "worst" category are Ohio Republican Bob Taft, who has pleaded guilty to accepting illegal gifts and whose administration has been plagued by scandal, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, widely blamed for an inept state response to Hurricane Katrina.

Time, in its Nov. 21 edition released Monday, said the "conspicuous frugality" that helped Sanford win election in 2002 has stifled the state's growth.

"But a growing chorus of critics, including leaders of his own GOP, fear that his thrift has brought the state's economy to a standstill," Time said in the brief assessment.

"This summer Standard & Poor's lowered South Carolina's coveted AAA-bond rating to AA+, citing unemployment of 6.3 percent and a per capita income ($27,172) stuck in the nation's bottom fifth. The state had just lost its bid for a $500 million Airbus plant; Sanford was widely accused of making a miserly effort to lure the aerospace giant," the article continued.

"Business leaders are losing patience with Sanford's vetoes of budget items like trade centers and tourism marketing. Even GOP bosses charge that he is worse at economic development than at grandstanding, as when he visited the Legislature last year carrying piglets to protest what he considered pork-barrel spending," the article concluded

Time did not list any sources for its assessment.

Where state Democratic Party Chairman Joe Erwin said Time "hit the nail on the head," U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, a Lexington Republican and Sanford ally, chided the magazine for using unsupported statements and faulty reasoning.