Hopes McConnell didn't mean it

We hope South Carolina Senate chief Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, didn't mean it when he said he would not ask the Senate to reconsider Gov. Mark Sanford's proposals to make state agencies more accountable to voters. Mostly by party-line votes, senators rejected constitutional amendments to make the education superintendent, agriculture commissioner, adjutant general and secretary of state - now all elected by voters - members of the governor's Cabinet. Senators also voted down the proposal to have the governor and lieutenant governor run on the same ticket.

In doing so, they thumbed their noses at voters who returned Sanford for a second term Nov. 7. ...

There's a chance that South Carolina House members will pass a restructuring package for Senate consideration later this year. They did run in November and, like the governor, saw how receptive many voters are to state government reform.

But McConnell, who has said he supports reform, shouldn't leave the matter to chance. Lest it appear that he and other senators want to keep the governorship weak and state government inefficient, he should encourage the Judiciary Committee to rework the restructuring measures and bring them back to the full Senate for debate and another vote.