Uh-oh.

AndyHall

Colonel
Joined
Dec 13, 2011
Is the long-running and hella expensive H. L. Hunley Project going to get caught up in a South Carolina political corruption scandal? Could be:

This week The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper reported that the left-leaning University of South Carolina – another Quinn client – had turned over documents to Pascoe’s team of S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) investigators.

They aren’t the only ones …

According to our sources, documents have also been obtained from Clemson University – a government agency which has been intimately associated with Quinn’s most brazen fleecing of South Carolina taxpayers: The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley.

Over the past two decades, tens of millions of tax dollars have flowed toward this Confederate submarine – which was raised from the floor of Charleston harbor on August 8, 2000. Millions more have been spent on related Confederate memorabilia – and millions more on a government-run “Restoration Institute” run under the auspices of Clemson University.

Why would South Carolina taxpayers be placed on the hook for such non-core appropriations?

Easy: Because former S.C. lieutenant governor, longtime State Senate president and current College of Charleston leader Glenn McConnell (below) was pushing them. And no one was about to stand up to the man who – at the time – was arguably the most powerful politician in the state.

McConnell – who fancies himself a Confederate general – is a longtime client of Quinn’s political consulting firm, which has benefited considerably from these state appropriations via its “Friends of the Hunley” organization. In fact, McConnell’s alleged efforts to enrich Quinn using Hunley funding was originally exposed during his bid for the College of Charleston presidency – but no one ever followed up on the allegations.

They are most certainly following up now …

According to our sources, Pascoe and his team of investigators are not only poring through various Clemson University “Restoration Institute” documents, they are also investigating the allegation that McConnell conspired with Quinn’s firm to rig the bidding for various Hunley-related contracts.

As far as I can tell, suspicion at this point isn't directed at the archaeologists, historians, and conservators themselves, the people who've actually done the work of investigating and preserving this remarkable artifact; this looks to be conventional political corruption case of the type that more typically involves road construction contracts or real estate development. Still, it's troubling, and I hate the idea that the good work that's been done over the last two decades might be tainted by pedestrian graft.

A few years ago, a well-known nautical archaeologist commented that we're unlikely to see more very large-scale Civil War underwater archaeology projects in the near term, because "Monitor and Hunley broke the bank." I think he's (sadly) probably right about that, although the subsequent work on C.S.S. Georgia at Savannah might be an exception to his prediction. If it turns out that McConnell and Quinn were funneling dirty money into the Hunley project, it's just going to make that situation that much worse.
 
Is the long-running and hella expensive H. L. Hunley Project going to get caught up in a South Carolina political corruption scandal? Could be:

This week The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper reported that the left-leaning University of South Carolina – another Quinn client – had turned over documents to Pascoe’s team of S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) investigators.

They aren’t the only ones …

According to our sources, documents have also been obtained from Clemson University – a government agency which has been intimately associated with Quinn’s most brazen fleecing of South Carolina taxpayers: The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley.

Over the past two decades, tens of millions of tax dollars have flowed toward this Confederate submarine – which was raised from the floor of Charleston harbor on August 8, 2000. Millions more have been spent on related Confederate memorabilia – and millions more on a government-run “Restoration Institute” run under the auspices of Clemson University.

Why would South Carolina taxpayers be placed on the hook for such non-core appropriations?

Easy: Because former S.C. lieutenant governor, longtime State Senate president and current College of Charleston leader Glenn McConnell (below) was pushing them. And no one was about to stand up to the man who – at the time – was arguably the most powerful politician in the state.

McConnell – who fancies himself a Confederate general – is a longtime client of Quinn’s political consulting firm, which has benefited considerably from these state appropriations via its “Friends of the Hunley” organization. In fact, McConnell’s alleged efforts to enrich Quinn using Hunley funding was originally exposed during his bid for the College of Charleston presidency – but no one ever followed up on the allegations.

They are most certainly following up now …

According to our sources, Pascoe and his team of investigators are not only poring through various Clemson University “Restoration Institute” documents, they are also investigating the allegation that McConnell conspired with Quinn’s firm to rig the bidding for various Hunley-related contracts.

As far as I can tell, suspicion at this point isn't directed at the archaeologists, historians, and conservators themselves, the people who've actually done the work of investigating and preserving this remarkable artifact; this looks to be conventional political corruption case of the type that more typically involves road construction contracts or real estate development. Still, it's troubling, and I hate the idea that the good work that's been done over the last two decades might be tainted by pedestrian graft.

A few years ago, a well-known nautical archaeologist commented that we're unlikely to see more very large-scale Civil War underwater archaeology projects in the near term, because "Monitor and Hunley broke the bank." I think he's (sadly) probably right about that, although the subsequent work on C.S.S. Georgia at Savannah might be an exception to his prediction. If it turns out that McConnell and Quinn were funneling dirty money into the Hunley project, it's just going to make that situation that much worse.
I won't get political here but will only make a blanket statement. This country is becoming a banana republic, there is absolutely nothing on the up and up anymore because the money involved is so large. Remember the good old days when the worst they could get away with was laundering stamps at the Congressional Post Office? That was amateur hour, the professional shakedown artists are in control now.
 
I won't get political here but will only make a blanket statement. This country is becoming a banana republic, there is absolutely nothing on the up and up anymore because the money involved is so large. Remember the good old days when the worst they could get away with was laundering stamps at the Congressional Post Office? That was amateur hour, the professional shakedown artists are in control now.
I think we disagree, Robert. I don't think this stuff is more common today; I think it's much more common for the perpetrators to get caught at it, what with email, text messages, electronic wire transfers, all sorts of things that can be traced.
 
I think we disagree, Robert. I don't think this stuff is more common today; I think it's much more common for the perpetrators to get caught at it, what with email, text messages, electronic wire transfers, all sorts of things that can be traced.
Andy, I agree to a point but it is the scale of the shakedowns and theft now that is so stunning. It's just saddens me; there just seems to be no sense of shame anymore, taken or given, it's all about what one can get away with.

Yeah I know, I'm sounding like the old man I am.
 
Andy, I agree to a point but it is the scale of the shakedowns and theft now that is so stunning. It's just saddens me; there just seems to be no sense of shame anymore, taken or given, it's all about what one can get away with.

Yeah I know, I'm sounding like the old man I am.
I disagree. Back then, there wasn't nearly as much surveillance, technology, let alone cell phones with cameras to report crime. I'm not trying to go off topic here but I feel that needs to be addressed.

One of my grandfathers who is not of this Earth anymore did crimes that now days would've been laughably easy to get caught doing. In fact, one time he was caught but the cop let him get away since they weren't being recorded.
 
In this case it certainly seems it took over a decade to sniff out a possible crime. Methinks if one is in position to control likely lookers then one can still evade detection for some time. Of course, the longer one evades the more difficult it is to continue to evade. Very much like the old adage regarding lies and how defending such requires more lies. I can only hope there is still such a thing as poetic justice.
 
I wonder though, how much credence we can give to a site with a masthead that claims to be "Unfair. Imbalanced."? It all may be true, but is there another place we can get the story to verify it? If it is true it is a sad state of affairs.
 
I think whenever go0vernment gets involved in project like this the money would have definitely been diverted for other projects. Just for example, in Georgia, money from the Education Special Local Option Sales Tax supposed to be used for education was diverted to a walk way for the new Braves stadium. There is no doubt a lot of money flowed because of the Hunley exhibit. I went to the re-interment of the soldiers there. I still want to visit the Hunley site and museum again.
 
That was amateur hour, the professional shakedown artists are in control now.

Read more about shenanigans throughout the history of the Republic, you'll become as cynical as the rest of us.

StatlerandWaldorf(2).jpg
 
"...democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." --Winston Churchill

Sigh. I do hope that the Hunley and her dedicated researchers and restorers aren't the ones to suffer for this.
 
Corruption is nothing new, it's what politicians do. I have twice watched donations made for a specific cause get re-allocated by some govt bean counter. I will never again donate money to a state of federal preservation project and when I do give coin I do enough research to know where it will end up.

It isn't a Democrat vs Republican thing or a north vs south thing. Politicians are the same the world over. It's pretty easy to tell if someone is a politician; his hands are in your pockets.

As an example well over $100,000 raised for flag preservation was re-allocated to the general fund of a state. In another case money sent to a local historical society for the placement of a monument was never listed as having been received but the checks were certainly cashed.
 
It isn't a Democrat vs Republican thing or a north vs south thing. Politicians are the same the world over. It's pretty easy to tell if someone is a politician; his hands are in your pockets.

Good one! Another of my favorites is from Nikita Khrushchev:

"Politicians are the same the world over. They will build a bridge even where there is no river."
 
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