Confederate Flag becomes an issue for GOP candidates in SC

I see this tired “issue” is rearing its head again, thanks to – who else? – the MSM (and Mike Huckabee – see my correction below):

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Republican presidential candidates on Thursday moved to appeal to different types of conservative voters before the South Carolina primary, with Mike Huckabee using colorful language to declare the Confederate flag a states’ rights issue and Senator John McCain embracing a supply-side tax cut proposal.

“You don’t like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag” Mr. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, told supporters in Myrtle Beach, according to The Associated Press.

“In fact” he said, “if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d tell them what to do with the pole; that’s what we’d do.”

At a news conference on Thursday night, he said, “It is not an issue the president of the United States needs to weigh in on.” Mr. Huckabee, who did not say whether he considered it offensive to fly the Confederate battle flag, made his remarks as he toured the state with David Beasley, a former South Carolina governor, who had angered some conservatives by removing the flag from the Capitol dome in Columbia and displaying it elsewhere on the Capitol grounds.

And a radio advertisement paid for by an independent group used the flag issue to attack Mr. McCain, of Arizona, and praise Mr. Huckabee. “John McCain assaults our values” it said. “Mike Huckabee understands the value of heritage.”

Captain Ed’s take on this “controversy” is right on:

Why are the rest of us cringing? Most of the country wonders why some Southerners insist on celebrating the flag of rebellion, a symbol that came to be associated over the years with some ugly practices. Those same people will wonder why its preservation seems such an issue for Republican presidential candidates, when the best course of action would have been to ignore it. Making it a campaign issue gives it more credence and more import than it deserves, both inside and especially outside of South Carolina.

The media loves it. It gives the New York Times and newspapers around the country a great excuse to tie the Confederate flag to the national Republican Party. That’s an association that the rest of the party will strongly resent. Leave the flag to the South Carolinians and start talking about issues that actually matter.

Amen.

And what better way to motivate South Carolina’s black voters a week before the Dem primary there, by bringing** up the issue of the Confederate Flag, using the “guilty by association” card in order to imply that the Republican candidates are racists, and that because of it, they better get out and vote or one of those “racist Republicans” might get elected to the WH?

Move along here – no agenda to see.

**Correction: A reader emails to correct me that the MSM didn’t bring it up initially – Hucakbee (stupidly) did, giving the media the opening they needed to demagogue the issue again, which they are. Nice move, Huck. Not.