TweetYesterday, Glenn McConnell chose to be the messenger for the College of Charleston’s board of trustees’ call for the flag to come down, rather than delegating it to a flack. Today, it’s McConnell saying it himself. This just in: Statement from College of Charleston President Glenn McConnell: I served with Senator Clementa Pinckney in the […]
TweetAs I hoped, it looks like Lindsey Graham will be there with Haley asking for the flag to come down: (CNN)South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham will call Monday for the removal of the confederate flag from state grounds, a source familiar with the decision told CNN. Graham, a 2016 presidential candidate, will make his […]
TweetSince this letter acknowledges that he knows what’s up today, this probably goes sort of in the category of giving her support at a critical moment. The mayor already called for the flag to come down a couple of days back: Dear Governor Haley: On Wednesday, June 17th, a long time and dear friend of […]
TweetI was so excited about the reports of what Nikki Haley might do today that initially I didn’t see this: As the ever-growing chorus of South Carolina and United States citizens calling for the removal of the Confederate Flag from the State House grounds gets louder, one of the state’s top legislators has called for […]
TweetIt’s now being reported, without attribution so far, that at a 4 p.m. press conference today, Nikki Haley will reveal that she is working on a plan to bring down the Confederate flag that flies on the State House grounds. Her office, which announced the presser, is not confirming what it’s about. If she does this, […]
TweetAfter I posted this, challenging Lindsey Graham to step up the way Mitt Romney has on the flag, Kevin Bishop from his office sent me a link to this item on The Hill: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Friday he would welcome discourse over lowering a Confederate flag near his state’s capitol building. Graham’s remarks […]
TweetCheck it out: Take down the #ConfederateFlag at the SC Capitol. To many, it is a symbol of racial hatred. Remove it now to honor #Charleston victims. — Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) June 20, 2015 Now, there’s an example of somebody we need speaking at a State House rally! So, the last GOP nominee for president […]
Tweet As y’all may have noticed, I’ve been ranting and raving about my inability to find out anything about the anti-Confederate flag rally that Facebook told us was (and still is) scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday at the State House. Who was organizing it? Who would be speaking? Would this be a mainstream sort of […]
Tweet I wrote about this and posted it four years ago, and referred back to it yesterday. But today, when the Sheheen campaign sent it out for the benefit of those who previously missed it or have forgotten, it occurred to me that they have a point: For the sake of clear comparison to Sheheen’s […]
Tweet Vincent Sheheen’s call to remove the Confederate flag from the State House grounds isn’t some here-today, forgotten-tomorrow campaign gimmick. It’s a game-changer. But only if he somehow manages to win the election. Sheheen was paraphrased in The State today as saying that this is an issue best addressed by a governor. Sure, he could […]
TweetBack on a previous post, Greg Jones said: On a final note; do any of the German government buildings still fly the Nazi flag? Just asking. To which I gladly replied, No, they do NOT, Greg. The Germans decided to draw a line, to say going forward, “We are not Nazis.” Unfortunately, South Carolina has not yet […]
TweetOn a previous post, there was an exchange between the two Michaels: Michael Rodgers, who believes passionately as I do that the Confederate flag should not be flying on our State House grounds, and “Michael P.,” who seems to disagree. The exchange had to do with the NAACP’s boycott of South Carolina over the flag. […]
TweetMichael Rodgers, a regular correspondent here and probably my most ardent regular blog ally on the cause of getting the Confederate flag off the State House lawn, has started a new blog dedicated to the cause, as he informed me over the weekend: Dear Brad, Hi, how are you? What’s new on the […]
TweetS.C. political culture keeps flag up, DOT unreformed By BRAD WARTHENEDITORIAL PAGE EDITORRECENTLY, I said state lawmakers refuse to find the time to deal with the Confederate flag’s implications for our state. I was wrong. They’ve saved so much time by not reforming the Department of Transportation this session that they managed to take […]
TweetPoor Ted Pitts. My House representative wasn’t in the Legislature when this issue was raging before. So he made the mistake of speaking candidly with me about the Confederate flag, and I wrote about it, and he found out how much sound and fury it can generate. I just got this letter from him: Dear […]
TweetEverybody thinks the flag’s an issue except those who can act on it By Brad WarthenEditorial Page Editor‘I JUST WANTED to touch base with you and let you know I enjoyed your editorials this morning,” said the phone message. “You don’t have to call me back, but read ’em and thought you did a great […]
TweetNo, this is not a Harry Turtledove alternate history novel. There is a war of words going on on this blog between the Nazis who plan to march in our capital on Saturday — or to be precise, the leader of a splinter group of said organization — and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who […]
TweetYou can generally count, in my trade, on hearing more from people who are mad at you than from those who agree. People who are ticked off pick up the phone or send a e-mail; those who agree just tell you if they happen to run into you personally. Things are running the other way […]
TweetExpect to hear something in the next few days about a public effort to try to get the flag down. It’s either get started in the next few days, or forget about it until next year, with the Legislature set to shut down the first week of June. It might not be until next week, […]
TweetMayor Bob Coble paused en route to Deutschland to post these thoughts on my recent post on the flag issue: Brad, I am on a plane from Atlanta to Frankfurt for an economic development mission with S.C. Commerce. (This email address will reach me on my blackberry until Thursday). One focus of the trip is […]