Governor aims to mend ties

COLUMBIA -- A day after facing a political firing squad and coming out standing, Gov. Mark Sanford said Thursday that he will try to get along better with legislators but that he has no plans to back down from issues that often made him their adversary.

His comments came after his monthly Cabinet meeting, on his first day back on the job after the cloud of impeachment was mostly lifted.

"It's not in my nature, unfortunately, to walk on eggshells," Sanford said. "And so, I failed at a rather epic level. I apologized. There were consequences that we dealt with for the last five, six months.

"One of those consequences, at least seemingly, is coming to a close."

Next week, the full House Judiciary Committee will take up a resolution to censure the governor. The subcommittee that reviewed the governor's proposed impeachment voted 6-1 Wednesday to reject the proposal.

A censure won't have any practical effect, other than to admonish the governor publicly.

Sanford acknowledged the hurdle he cleared with the subcommittee's vote. His future in office had been in doubt, in part because of the number of political enemies he'd made over his two terms in office.

"Will I be maybe a little bit less tone-deaf to where my legislative colleagues might come from at a certain point? Yeah, I think so and that would be a good thing," he said.

Private life is off limits

Although his private life continues to make headlines, the governor said that he has said all that he will about his love life this summer. He did say that he did not watch his wife's appearance Wednesday night on Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People of 2009" special.

"The obvious is the obvious, which is, I hurt her greatly as I did many other people across the state. But I hurt her most greatly and so I don't begrudge her in any way for speaking out as she has," Sanford said. "I think that she has been incredibly graceful in that process of dealing with a whole lot of pain that I have caused."

He refused to say how he felt about the first lady's acknowledgement that she is not his soul mate, as the governor once described his mistress.

"I am not going back to June. I've had all those conversations," he said.

Business to address

In his remaining year in office, Sanford has many serious matters to tend to, not limited to the state's high unemployment and slumped economy.

One of those was the subject of a briefing Thursday from several members of his Cabinet, including Emma Forkner, the director of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Forkner said the state would be on the hook for $687 million more for Medicaid if the current health care reform legislation being debated in Congress were to become law.

The U.S. House version would cost South Carolina $1.17 billion, she said.

The House plan would bring about 30 percent of South Carolina's total population to the Medicaid rolls.

The Senate version would bring the total state population on Medicaid to 24 percent, Forkner said.

Sanford said he is greatly concerned about future tax increases associated with federal health care proposals. He sent letters Thursday to the S.C. congressional delegation to urge them to oppose the legislation.

"Layered on top of an already incredibly difficult budget year, and an even worse budget next year, is the idea of mandates from the federal government on the health care side that would be even more catastrophic to our ability to set budget priorities in South Carolina," Sanford said.