As Kathryn noted over in the Corner, Democrats threw away thousands of American flags at the end of their Denver convention. The flags were rescued from the ash heap of history and were subsequently recycled by John “Sierra Club” McCain.
Just to put this offense in the proper perspective, here’s an excerpt from an old Planet Gore post on the Dem Convention’s goal of recycling its waste:
Perhaps Ms. Robinson’s most audacious goal is to reuse, recycle or compost at least 85% of all waste generated during the convention.
American flags must have fallen into the 15-percent category of having no further value. Is it too audacious to hope (do we have to pay royalties to Reverend Wright if we use his sermon title in a blog post?) that Democrats would have more sense than this?
Here’s an update on the story:
Boy Scouts were sorting through 84 bags of flags in Colorado on Saturday, before a McCain supporter had veterans distribute them to the audience.
“We want to find good homes for these flags,” radio host Dan Caplis said at the rally, adding that whatever flags remained would be placed at memorials throughout Colorado.
Audience members, who booed when Caplis announced that the flags were left in Denver, waved the flags and chanted “U.S.A” before McCain arrived at the rally with his running mate, Sarah Palin.
Damon Jones, spokesman for the Democratic National Convention Committee, released a statement saying McCain should applaud the fact that thousands of American flags were “proudly waved” at their convention.
“But instead his supporters wrongfully took leftover bundles of our flags from the stadium to play out a cheap political stunt calling into question our patriotism,” he said.
Is it now “wrongful” to rescue the American flag from the garbage?
UPDATE: The DNC has released two different statements saying the flags were not garbage:
UPDATE: DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney issues a statement: “American flags were proudly waved by the 75,000 people who joined Barack Obama at the Democratic Convention. John McCain should applaud that, but instead his supporters wrongfully took leftover bundles of our flags from the stadium to play a cheap political stunt calling into question our patriotism. On the same day he agrees to join Barack Obama at Ground Zero on September 11, John McCain attacks the patriotism of Obama supporters who so proudly waved the American flag at our historic event in Denver just days ago.”
UPDATE II: Another statement from the Democratic National Convention Committee: “Stories circulating about flags at the Democratic National Convention are false. We distributed more than 125,000 American made flags at the Convention – the flags removed from Invesco field were intended for other events and taken without permission. It’s disappointing that someone would take American flags without authorization and then falsely describe how they were being used. We have the utmost respect for the American flag, and it’s sad to see them being used for a cheap political stunt.”
UPDATE II: An update from the guy who found the flags at Invesco:
I just spoke with the person at Invesco who found the flags and he thinks both sides are exaggerating a bit. The person claims the majority of the bags with flags in them were near the trash, on a dock, and would have been thrown away. The person thinks it was probably an “oversight” by the Democrats rather than any nefarious plot against the flag. But the person doesn’t believe anyone was coming to get them: “The flags were there for a week and a day and no one came looking for them.”
As well as bonus pictures of Democrats post Obama-palooza throwing their flags away as if they were half-eaten hot dogs.
Captain Ed from Hot Air wrote about the pictures of the flags in the trash:
Gateway Pundit has pictures of individual flags sitting in trash bags, but that’s not the DNCC’s fault; it’s the fault of the individuals who threw out their flags. The DNCC couldn’t possibly be expected to sort through all of the thousands of bags of normal trash. They can be expected to know better than to toss 12,000 American flags in with it.
Actually, as the excerpt at the top of this post suggests, yes, Democrats can be expected to go through the trash because Democrats said they were going to sort their trash from the convention. But, yes, anyone who threw their flags away should know better.