The Republican dominated South Carolina state legislature just finished up a six month legislative session without accomplishing much of anything.

A tax hike on cigarettes is dead for the year, maintaining South Carolinas distinctive rank of having the nations lowest per pack taxation rate and efforts to help funnel those extra funds toward health insurance for the state’s poorest children will go unfunded for another year. Efforts to toughen penalties against drunk drivers are dead again for another year, killed by the extremely well funded DUI attorney lobby. If only the victims of those killed by drunk drivers could be equally as well funded and as effective in their lobbying efforts. For all the hue and cry over immigration in this law and order state, bills that would have required employers to verify a worker’s legal status and enforce federal immigration laws are dead for the year. I’m sure that bill fell victim to the lobbying efforts of home builders and other industries that rely on the lower paid illegal work force that most of the conservative Republicans are working so hard to deport from the U.S.

Instead of helping to shepard through legislation our dear Governor has spent most of the past six months wrangling with the legislature over restructuring of the Department of Transportation and raising money from his supporters for yet another pet project, ReformSC.com, a new group dedicated to reforming the current political system in South Carolina. My fellow political commentator Andy Brack translates this as meaning, “Sanford isn’t getting what he wants so he’s going to raise money to shine a light on what lawmakers are doing, including members of his own party who control the legislature.” Now you now why the GOP loves to hate this guy. Again, from Andy Brack’s State House Report, “If he (Sanford) wanted to lead, he could do it. It’s been done in the past,” said, state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg. “To lead-it’s not just about being an idea and saying it’s my way or the highway. You’ve got to engage in the work of the legislature.”

It’s almost as if Sanford doesn’t want to get his hands dirty, as if politics is so nasty that he doesn’t want to squat down and dirty his pant leg in the dirt with the rest of those nasty politicians. He would rather sit on the dock at Sullivan’s Island reading books by great thinkers about how things might be and try to bully the rest of the legislature into doing things his way. Then he acts mystifyed when things don’t go his way.

Legislators adjourned for a two week break without accomplishing much of anything that I can see…they will return and it remains to be seen what if anything they’ll get done upon their return. They squandered much of their time in the last six months on knee jerk legislation that pandered to their conservative base. Issues that didn’t affect major issues of importance in South Carolina but grabbed headlines and allowed some of them to grand stand.

One example was the ridiculous bill that proposed allowing guns on college campuses. A bill that was strongly opposed by educators and law enforcement alike, the experts which legislators in hearings on the matter chose to disregard, because they apparently felt they knew better. In typical knee jerk reaction to the tragedy at Virginia Tech and apparently after listening to talk radio and Rush Limbaugh and after about five minutes worth of work on the bill they whipped up a half baked plan to allow college kids who haven’t fully developed the ability to think out the consequences of their actions to carry concealed weapons into college class rooms so that they could defend themselves in the event of another armed attack. Also if their girlfriend decided to break it off with them or another boy made them mad during a drunken argument they could be armed and dangerous in their dorm room. Thankfully this bill died in committee, but not until it ate up weeks of time in debate and hearings.

Another bill that chewed up considerable time and attention was the ultra sound abortion bill. A bill that of course the rest of the nation has chosen to reject because of the considerable constitutional challenges it poses but of course that didn’t deter our moralistic state lawmakers who generally feel far superior to most women especially when it comes to choices that involve sex and morals. Hats off to several of our brave Democratic legislators who led the opposition to this bill and articulated their opposition standing up for a woman’s right to choose what is best for her and what is still her legal right in this country. This ill conceived and severely flawed piece of legislation also died in committee but not before also consuming much time, emotion and effort which could have been far better spent on issues that affect tens of thousands of hardworking people in our state, including passage of a new budget which should have been worked out weeks ago not left for the last few frantic days of the session.

I’ve heard all of the bull shit criticism for years about the Democrats. At this point in history I yearn for great leadership like that exhibited by former Governor Dick Riley who actually could work with the opposing party to guide legislation from creation to passage. Republicans you control everything in Columbia and have for years and you still can’t get a damn thing done. What’s your excuse?