GOP’s cowardly Confederate flag move perfectly crystallizes their Donald Trump problem on race

Southern Republicans made a last ditch attempt to save the flag. Boehner scrambled to avoid the shame of a vote

JOAN WALSH

On Thursday, GOP House Speaker John Boehner failed to accomplish what Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley did: he couldn’t rally his caucus behind a bipartisan decision to take down the Confederate flag, in this case from federal property.

How did it end that way, when earlier this week Boehner seemed to be playing the statesman? He told reporters he supported the flag’s removal, and Tuesday night House Democrats introduced an amendment to a spending bill that would take down the flag from federal property and ban its sale or display at national parks or cemeteries, which passed unanimously. When white Southern GOP members belatedly figured out what happened, as is often the case, they rebelled. Then Boehner, unbelievably, canceled a vote on the appropriations bill that contained the flag provision. “I do not want this to become some political football,” he declared.

And party leaders wonder why they have a Donald Trump-sized problem with race.

Once Southern members figured out what happened, Rep. Ken Calvert offered an amendment to allow the flag to be displayed at federal cemeteries and sold in gift shops. Boehner managed to table that when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi outplayed him, introducing a privileged resolution instructing the speaker to “remove any State flag containing any portion of the Confederate battle flag, other than a flag displayed by the office of a Member of the House, from any area within the House wing of the Capitol or any House office building, and shall donate any such flag to the Library of Congress.”

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy pushed to table that, too, by sending it to committee, and he was backed by every Republican member but one, Rep. Curt Clawson of Florida.

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http://www.salon.com/2015/07/10/gop%E2%80%99s_cowardly_confederate_flag_move_perfectly_crystallizes_their_donald_trump_problem_on_race/