Now, the state's $5.5 billion budget is law, and the governor won only a handful of minor battles in the spending plan, which pays off a $155 million deficit from two years ago and gives state workers a 3 percent, across-the-board raise, their first in two years.

As the Senate was overriding his vetoes Thursday, Sanford made a move that elicited first laughter and then rancor, as he climbed the Statehouse stairs with two baby pigs -- named Pork and Barrel -- tucked under his arms. Standing in front of the House chamber, Sanford took aim at House members who quickly overrode 105 of his 106 vetoes the day before.

"There was a lot of pork-eating yesterday," he said, as the squealing pigs squirmed and relieved themselves on him. "Ultimately what was said here yesterday was that we're not going to cut spending by even one dollar."

If the pig stunt meant to draw attention to pork-barrel spending backfires, the governor may have to concede that his legislative agenda has been sty-mied.

Sanford said he brought the pigs in a lighthearted attempt to make a point. But House members weren't laughing.

"This is the people's house," said a visibly angered House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville. "I think the governor has defiled it to get a photo op."

Wilkins, who said he has never seen such a stunt in 24 years in the House, called Sanford's actions "political grandstanding."

Sanford did not immediately respond to questions later Thursday about the Senate vetoes. His spokesman, Will Folks, said the governor wouldn't comment on specific vetoes "until the process is completed" in the Legislature.

Among the vetoes sustained by the Senate were:

-- That the Department of Social Services should have more flexibility in dealing with budget reduction through the way it handles child care reimbursements;

-- That the Aeronautics Commission shouldn't be moved from control of the Commerce Department to the Transportation Department;

-- That the State Law Enforcement Division shouldn't be able to raise fines to $5,000 on video gambling machines it seizes.

The governor had announced his vetoes Tuesday in a detailed, 43-page message outlining $36 million in cuts to the state budget.

The House ran through his vetoes in less than two hours, sustaining only his rejection of a proposal to move the State Accident Fund to the Department of Insurance. House members said their speed was due to confidence in the budget, originally drafted by the House Ways and Means Committee.

At the heart of the controversy is a difference in philosophy between Sanford and the Legislature on how best to pay down the state's $155 million deficit.

The state's entire budget is $16.7 billion, $5.5 billion of which is state-controlled money. Sanford wants to use "cold, hard cash" to pay down the debt. The compromise budget passed by the House and Senate last week uses $16 million from the sale of surplus land -- similar to a proposal found in the governor's executive budget -- to pay down the debt.

The difference between Sanford and the Legislature accounts for less than 1 percent of the budget. Wilkins said it's a relatively small amount, and the governor's attack seems odd, given the work House members have done this session on his legislative agenda.

So far, the House has passed 13 of 16 items on Sanford's agenda. The Senate has passed only two.

Sanford is close to finishing his second year the same way he finished his first, unable to get any major legislation passed. In the past few weeks, the frustration has begun to show as Sanford has increasingly used his bully pulpit.

"All of this, this circus-like atmosphere, is making Jim Hodges look like a stable governor," said state Rep. Doug Jennings, D-Bennettsville.

The budget takes effect July 1.

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