A new chief executive can make a vast difference for the better. Margaret Thatcher blazed across the sky in 1979, and she was the worst kind of "outsider." Great God, she was a woman prime minister -- the first ever -- but she dramatically changed what was left of the British Empire. It's benefited these 24 years. Britain was socialist and welfareist. She privatized, broke gigantic union choke holds and repealed anti-growth laws. She brought a tired old empire up from a downward spiral into vibrancy. The academics and professionals will never forgive her.

South Carolina is at a similar juncture. In recent years, I've read every report of the S.C. Legislative Audit Council, and every agency it has studied has been exposed as violating its mandate in some fashion or spending wastefully. Nobody seemed ever to pay any attention.

Brad Warthen and Cindi Ross Scoppe have weighed in on our new governor's revolutionary approach to next year's budget. They want him to succeed. He's an outsider to state government who wants the mission of every governmental entity to be clear-cut, flexible, measurable, focused.

The old Southern tolerance for sprawling, amiable government won't cut it anymore. The world outside the United States has become suddenly appallingly menacing, and our homeland security brings with it heavy new fiscal burdens. Another looming cost escalation involves the fact that people will keep on living longer.

I'm an ancient Southerner who has spent 64 of his 89 years in five Dixie states. Down here, we've historically voted for and indulged plausible rascals. We even gave them nicknames: "Kingfish," "Cotton Ed," "Coley," "Pitchfork Ben," "Slick Willie." They loaded the payroll with kinfolk and unqualified friends. These true characters were magnificent campaigners, full of corn- pone wit -- stand-up comedians. We voters thought redundant, lackadaisical government was sort of humorous.

In one column, Cindi Scoppe took Mark Sanford's quizzing of the head of the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services as her case in point. It wants more money. Should it get any? Should it exist? Has alcohol consumption decreased, or illicit drugs? What has it learned that's most effective? What will it stop doing? What will it do instead?

Sometimes less is better, as Bob Faith is trying to demonstrate at Commerce. Industry in these parlous times is taking a hard look at itself. It measures itself every quarter, every 90 days. In retail, you try to improve on last year every day. In South Carolina, we're already measuring schoolchildren, teachers, schools. Why stop there?

Here are just two unbelievable instances of current folly:

• Columbia is planning to build itself a wholly owned hotel complete with restaurants, saloons -- the whole mess. Professionally run hotels find it hard to survive these days.

• A distinguished congressman has cobbled up the money to build an $83 million-plus expressway bridge from Nowhere (Rimini) to Nonexistent (Lone Star).

Are we just numb out there in TV land? When, if ever, does outrage set in?

What is the specific mission of First Steps? Is somebody holding every location in each county accountable? Which are plain silly? Its prototype in North Carolina has metastasized into a $450 million-plus convoluted muddle. We already have a slightly different federal program, Head Start. In a majority of locations, it performs well; in many others, its effects are negligible. These do-good plans have a tendency to believe their very existence says all that needs to be said about their good intentions.

Mr. Warthen and Ms. Scoppe are justifiably worried that our governor will be ineffective because he doesn't pay proper obeisance to tradition. Well, he can be effective if we help and support him. I mean you and me, dear reader. Enthusiastically! To be a force for common sense, he'll need all the friends he can get.

In 1998, The Wall Street Journal called the S.C. economy the most exciting in the Southeast. But we've mired ourselves in video poker, lottery and flag turmoil and have lost our compass. We can't perpetuate our endearing, quirky old habits any longer. We can have the most exciting economy again and add basic government restructuring. The ones who'll really benefit from the Sanford approach will be our kids and grandkids. Who knows, they may even stay here.