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5/11/00 10:20 a.m.
The War's Over
The flag comes down in South Carolina.

By Michael Graham, political columnist and talk radio host in SC

n a day filled with ironies, the South Carolina House of Representatives celebrated Confederate Memorial Day by voting to bring down the battle flag.

Also ironic was how close the state came to leaving the flag flying for another year, not because of recalcitrant red necks and their Republican allies, but due to the failure of the black Democrats who would rather pout than win.

After twelve hours of rambling debate that frequently missed the mark on historical accuracy (one legislator kept insisting the War Between the States was begun in 1862 by students from the Citadel), the Republican leadership cobbled together a 63-56 vote in favor of a Senate-passed compromise bill. In the Senate, every black member present supported the bill. But after weeks of heated rhetoric by the NAACP, the same deal was nearly killed by a strangest-of-strange bedfellows coalition of unreconstructed Confederistas and virtually the entire house black caucus.

The plan would remove the flag from the dome, as well as the House and Senate chambers, and place a single, smaller banner beside the Confederate Soldier's monument in front of the capitol. The bill, which Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges is expected to sign, also requires general assembly approval before the renaming of streets, buildings or monuments in South Carolina honoring either Confederate or civil-rights figures.

If this seems a significant compromise by pro-flag Republicans in a state where a GOP governor was ousted in 1998 for failing to support the flag, you're right. Indeed, when the NAACP boycott of South Carolina began earlier this year, leaders like SC president James Gallman pointedly repeated their only demand was "to remove the flag from the dome and place it in a position of historic context."

After Wednesday night's vote, however, Gallman denounced the compromise as "an insult."

The only deal offered that the black caucus gave majority support to was a plan to remove the flag entirely from the state house grounds, replacing it with a granite marker bearing a bronzed likeness of the banner. Once this plan was declared a "tombstone" by moderate Republicans, the black caucus took their votes and went home.

Meanwhile, the house GOP leadership, whose uninspiring performance has resulted in two of its members switching parties in the last month, continued to look for ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as the debate wore on.

The key to the Confederate flag issue in South Carolina is that, once the banner is off the dome, it's off the front pages and out of the Al Gore stump speech. But instead of using its centrist majority, however small, to approve the compromise, the leadership allowed more then 100 amendments in a hopeless search for a compromise that would garner 10 or more votes from black legislators. The leaders even crafted a new deal on the floor, a Byzantine plan to display multiple flags in various configurations on the grounds and to fly the Confederate banner from the state house dome on various historic occasions.

As a result, black-caucus members who want the flag locked in the basement and die-hard Confederistas who secretly desire to re-take Richmond were both given opportunities to draw out the debate and turn up the rhetorical heat. Meanwhile, reluctant-but-obedient Republicans became more and more frustrated as the debate dragged on.

The debate itself was almost overwhelming in its complete lack of content. Listening to the elected representatives of South Carolina, one had to conclude that:

a) Every white legislator has "a black friend,"
b) Every black legislator had, as a child, been dragged screaming from a water fountain at the State House, and
c) The public schools of this state are incapable of teaching grammar or logic to any citizen, white or black.

Outside the chamber, the debate turned from inane to inflammatory. House members arrived at the capitol Wednesday morning to discover anti-flag graffiti spray painted on the soldier's monument. Later in the day, a group of anti-flag activists caught the attention of TV cameras by simultaneous burning a Confederate and a Nazi flag just outside the state house.

Late in the evening, the GOP leadership finally figured out that the Democrats would provide no more than 30 votes — just 3 from the 25 black caucus members — they stepped up and did the heavy lifting. Longtime flag supporters like Speaker Pro Tempore Terry Haskins and Majority Leader Rick Quinn (whose father, Richard Quinn, publishes Southern Partisan magazine) joined with a majority of house Republicans in supporting the compromise.

From a political standpoint, the losers in the short term are the Republicans. Furling the flag definitely alienated part of the GOP base, which is never a smart idea when you've got a five-vote majority in the house. This vote will definitely cost the Republican party some votes and, in the June 13th primary, a couple of members their seats.

However, moving the flag takes away one of the Democrats' biggest issues in November, both for Al Gore and local candidates. South Carolina Republicans are just three seats away from a majority in the state Senate — a first since Reconstruction. Meanwhile, whatever bumps and bruised the GOP establishment suffers in the primaries, a strong national ticket in November could help the house increase its majority.

Speculation among Republicans is that keeping the flag up until November was the reason the black caucus wanted to see any deal defeated.

In the long run, the biggest loser will likely be the NAACP. Not only do a majority of South Carolinians already oppose the boycott but so do 65 percent of the American people. Continuing the boycott after the flag is moved will smack of sour grapes. It will also undermine the notion that America's black leadership is willing to negotiate on these emotional issues in good faith.

For years, South Carolina's confederate flag supporters have heard the cry "Get over it, the war's over!" As they look to other struggles in Georgia and Mississippi, the NAACP might be wise to take that same advice.

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