Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Defeat of Flag Burning Amendment
Hypocrisy Failed
They tried hard and they succeeded in getting support from 14 Democrats. Yet the proponents couldn't muster the two-thirds majority required for passage. Three Republicans---Senators Robert F. Bennett of Utah, Lincoln Chafee, R.I., and Mitch McConnell, Kentucky---voted against the amendment. They came close. The vote was 66 to 34---a narrow victory, but a victory nevertheless for the those who opposed the measure. It was a cynical move by the Republicans. They expect to make capital out of their loss as described by Charles Babington in the Post: "Behind the constitutional rhetoric were cold political considerations. Republicans are eager to energize conservative voters this fall, and the flag initiative -- even if doomed to fail -- is seen as a sure-fire way to inspire them, especially a week before Independence Day."
We are going to hear a lot more along this line before...and after the mid-term elections. They will exploit it, squeeze the last drop out of it.- Overturning a Texas law in 1989, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that burning an American flag in protest is a form of political speech protected under the First Amendment. Congress later passed a federal anti-flag-desecration law, and the high court invalidated it on the same grounds.
- Ever since, lawmakers have debated whether flag burning is an unsavory cost of political freedom or something more akin to intolerable hate speech or monument defacement.
- "Hours before the votes were taken, Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) thrust the issue into his reelection campaign. Noting that Democratic challenger James Webb had said he opposed the amendment, Allen's campaign issued a press release linking Webb to Sens. John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who voted against the amendment. The release said Webb is "totally beholden to the liberal Washington senators" who backed him in this month's primary.
But hypocrisy was not limited to Republicans. An alternative proposed by Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois and seconded by Senator Hillary Clinton was a transparent attempt to appease both sides. "The measure -- a proposed statute, rather than constitutional amendment -- was offered by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and was strongly endorsed by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), a possible presidential candidate who has sought a middle ground in the flag-burning debate."
- The proposal would have outlawed flag desecration if the perpetrators were also damaging federal property, trying to incite violence or trying to intimidate someone. Opponents called Durbin's measure a political fig leaf that the Supreme Court would rule unconstitutional.
It fooled no one.