Just hours after a heated exchange behind closed doors, the off-again, on-again relationship between Gov. Mark Sanford and House Speaker David Wilkins was back on.

The two leading Republicans have resolved their differences so much so that Wilkins has pledged to try to push Sanford’s key legislative priorities through the House by the end of this month.

“More important than any specific bill is, it’s an attitude,” Wilkins said. “The attitude is, we’re going to work together. It’s the first time it’s happened to this magnitude.”

The reconciliation still leaves the Senate looking on from the outside in the Republican-controlled State House, with the governor’s office taking a shot at that side of the General Assembly as recently as Friday.

Senate leaders have not been involved in the rapprochement of their Republican colleagues, and some worry that this latest hand-holding is an attempt to bully them.

It’s been a stormy month at the State House, where Republicans control the Legislature and governor’s office for the first time since Reconstruction.

Sanford vetoed the Life Sciences Act — a hodge-podge of spending that would give money to research universities but also fund more controversial items such as a Myrtle Beach convention center.

After the Legislature overrode his veto, Sanford threatened to sue the General Assembly, calling the law unconstitutional because it employed “bobtailing” — lumping together unrelated issues on one bill.

Sanford postponed his plan to sue Wednesday after meeting behind closed doors with angry House Republicans.

Wilkins said he appreciated the governor’s stepping back from a lawsuit threat so much that he agreed to meet with Sanford’s chief of staff, Tom Davis, three times on Thursday. They discussed what the House could do with the governor.

The closed-door meeting had cleared the air, Wilkins said Friday.

“It went a long way toward letting folks vent their frustration and see that (Sanford’s) willing to work with us,” he said. “We want to work with him.”

Davis gave Wilkins a wish list of priorities that he would like to get through the House by April 30 — the deadline for passing legislation to the Senate this session. It included:

• Restructuring/consolidating state health care agencies

• Creating a Department of Administration reporting to the governor

• A statewide charter school authorization program

• Tuition tax credits for parents with children in private schools

• A remedy for bobtailing

• Giving the governor the authority to appoint some constitutional officers who are elected now.

None are guaranteed to pass, but Wilkins said he would try.

Sanford retains the option to sue, spokesman Will Folks said Friday. He describes the list not as a quid pro quo, but a good-faith pledge to work together.

The rapprochement puts some pressure on the third leg of the law-making stool, the Senate, whose leaders have not been involved in the latest discussions.

Several of Sanford’s core priorities have passed the House; none have made headway in the Senate. Senators should pass some of Sanford’s legislative priorities, Folks said, to show some good faith of their own.

“We’ve had dialogue now for a year and three months” since Sanford’s inauguration, Folks said. “It’s time to put some action behind that dialogue, as far as we’re concerned.”

Senators bristle at such tactics.

Sen. Jim Ritchie, R-Spartanburg, said he has heard Sanford’s strategy compared to the 1990s, when President Clinton worked effectively with Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate pressure then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

This political maneuver, called triangulation, angers Ritchie, the assistant majority leader in the state Senate.

It worked for Clinton because he was a Democrat and he was dividing and conquering Republican leaders, Ritchie said.

“I don’t think triangulation is going to work when we’re all part of the same team,” he said.

Ritchie said he has spoken frankly with Sanford, asking him to work with the Senate.

“I told him, many politicians can be elected on challenging government. Very few are re-elected on that premise.”

They are re-elected, Ritchie said, on their ability to work within the system and to govern effectively.

Folks said he respects Ritchie, but disagrees.

“It’s not about one chamber versus another to the governor,” Folks said. “The governor is going to focus on ideas. He’s going to continue to push aggressively for the ideas he thinks are right.

“And let the chips fall where they may.”

Reach Bauerlein at (803) 771-8485 or vbauerlein@thestate.com