Talk about poor timing! Just as S.C. senators were at the threshhold of agreement on Gov. Mark Sanford's proposed tax swap Thursday, the governor flew to Bermuda for the end of a Charleston-to-Bermuda yacht race. The swap entails lowering the S.C. income tax in future years in return for a 53-cents-per-pack cigarette tax this year. The $170 million the smokes tax would raise could leverage $400 million in new federal Medicaid reimbursements.

To make the numbers match up, thus keeping 43,000 poor folks on the Medicaid rolls and continuing the SilverCard prescription program for low-income seniors, senators needed to know whether Sanford would accept slightly smaller future income-tax cuts. His lack of availability prompted abrupt adjournment, leaving the fate of critical programs undecided.

True, senators could be blaming him unfairly for their own lack of resolve. But if he'd remained in Columbia, thousands of poor folks might not now be wondering whether they're about to lose their health coverage.