House folds on rebel flag at cemeteries
A vote to allow the banner for Confederate graves at National Park Service sites was scrapped.
WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled House scrapped a vote on permitting the Confederate flag at Park Service-run cemeteries on Thursday, a retreat under fire that only escalated a ferocious attack by Democrats complaining the banner celebrates a murderous, racist past.
"What exactly is the tradition of the Confederate battle flag that we're supporting?" Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) demanded as racial political tensions flared on the day the same banner was losing its place of honor on the grounds outside the South Carolina Capitol.
"Is it slavery, rape, kidnap, treason, genocide or all of the above?" he asked.
No Republican rose to respond, although some officials privately said that Democrats had falsely accused GOP lawmakers of racism. They noted the proposal would merely have written Obama administration policy into law.
Speaker John A. Boehner (R., Ohio), referring to the imminent removal of the flag in South Carolina, said it was time for "adults here in Congress to actually sit down and have a conversation about how to address the issue."
In response, Democrats ratcheted up their criticism, even though White House spokesman Josh Earnest pointedly refused to answer directly when asked whether President Obama would order the Park Service to ban the flag in its cemeteries.
Instead, Earnest criticized Republicans, whom he said "voted for a party leader who once described himself as, quote, 'David Duke without the baggage.' " He referred to Rep. Steve Scalise (R., La.), the third-ranking leader, whose spokesman retorted that the White House and Democrats "have chosen to respond with cheap political attacks that are beneath the dignity of their offices." The spokesman, Chris Bond, also said Scalise supported removing the flag in South Carolina.
Whatever the political fallout, the proposal would have permitted the limited display of the Confederate flag at Park Service-run cemeteries in states that observe a holiday commemorating the Confederacy, and only at the graves of rebels who died in the Civil War.
In line with a Park Service memorandum from 2010, it would have affected 10 graveyards, including four in Tennessee, three in Virginia and one each in Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia.
The number of graves was unknown, but Park Service spokeswoman Kathy Kupper said there was one at Andersonville cemetery in Georgia and two each at Shiloh in Tennessee and Vicksburg in Mississippi.
For her part, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi offered legislation to remove all state flags containing any portion of the Confederate battle flag from the House side of the Capitol, and said she would try again on Friday.
Boehner's spokesman, Kevin Smith, said that amounted to a "cheap political stunt" after the speaker had called for private talks on the issue. He said the bipartisan discussions could potentially address Confederate symbols within the Capitol as well as at parks and cemeteries.
Republicans prevented a vote on Pelosi's proposal by sending it to a committee for review - but Democrats slowed the tally by casting their votes manually instead of through an electronic tally system that is customarily employed.
Rep. John Lewis (D., Ga.), a veteran of the civil-rights era, said that was a form of nonviolent protest of the type used a half-century ago.
Democrats also employed other tactics. As Jeffries and other Democrats spoke, they were flanked by an oversize image of the Confederate flag they want to banish.