A Lot Can Change In Four Years

Four years ago, Bobby Harrell claimed he had never heard of the government agency that he now says should run all of South Carolina’s economic development efforts … such as they are.

In case you forgot, earlier this summer Harrell and his big government buddy Hugh Leatherman trotted out their latest plan to grow South Carolina’s economy by growing its government (again).

The key cog in this Marxist manifesto is the State Research Authority, an agency which four years ago (prior to our state’s recent 40% explosion in government growth) Harrell professed an ignorance of … and audited in an ostensible effort to assuage his curiosity.

Here’s the ebb and flow between Harrell (then the House Ways & Means chairman) and former Research Authority Director Larry Druffel from the October 1, 2004 edition of La Socialista (a.k.a. The State newspaper) …

The Charleston Republican told Druffel that he supports efforts to bring more research jobs to the state. Harrell said he meets frequently with the leaders of the state Commerce Department, Clemson, USC and the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston to find ways to do so.

“I’ve never heard any of them mention you,” Harrell said. “One of the reasons I asked for the audit is, I don’t know what you do.”

Harrell asked Druffel to provide a list of the agency’s research projects, showing the money spent in South Carolina and the reason other money was spent outside the state.

“I want to know how much of what you’re doing is benefiting South Carolina folks by bringing money in for research purposes,” Harrell said. “Because if there isn’t a large amount of that, with all due respect, there’s no point in having the organization housed here the way it’s set up. Research is great, but what we’re after is, how do we raise the incomes of people who live in South Carolina.”

Hmmm … aside from the obvious hypocrisy of that last quote in light of Harrell’s current plans, something’s just not right here.

Why would you audit an agency, publicly humiliate them and basically recommend that they be folded into another state bureaucracy if you had no idea what they actually did?

Wouldn’t it help to get the results from the audit first and then humiliate them?

Anyway, Druffel was ultimately “forced out” as the director of the agency, and obviously Harrell’s views on the importance of the State Research Authority to South Carolina’s economic development efforts have improved substantially in recent years.

So what happened?

We’re not sure, but something’s definitely fishy here.

UPDATE – We’ve gotten a few interesting calls on this story already this morning, and are starting to piece together what really went down. Stay tuned …

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