THUNE CHALLENGES DASCHLE ON PROTECTING FLAG
Rather than protecting the flag, Daschle wants flags fire-resistant
RAPID CITY AND SIOUX FALLS – Scoffing at Senator Tom Daschle’s proposal to make flags with fire-resistant material, South Dakota Republican Senate candidate John Thune called on Daschle to “join the vast majority of South Dakotans who support a constitutional amendment to protect our flag from desecration.”
Thune was joined by veterans during news conferences in Sioux Falls and Rapid City in
supporting a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to protect the American flag from desecration.
Daschle told the Associated Press earlier this week that the flag protection amendment is a “political ploy.”
“Rather than working to protect the American flag by voting for a constitutional amendment, Senator Daschle has publicly declared we should just make fire resistant flags,” Thune said. “Once again, Senator Daschle says one thing in South Dakota and does something entirely different in Washington, D.C.”
The Boston Globe reported on December 1, 1996 that Daschle “scoffed at the importance of amending the Constitution: ‘When was the last time you saw a flag burned? Why not just make the flags of fire-resistant material?’”
As South Dakota’s lone member of Congress from 1997 to 2003, Thune cosponsored and voted for three proposed constitutional amendments to protect the American flag from desecration. Conversely, Daschle has voted against amendments to protect the flag four times.
Daschle has publicly stated he opposes the flag protection amendment because he does not want to amend the Bill of Rights in the Constitution. Daschle has cosponsored 37 proposed constitution amendments since being elected to Congress 28 years ago in 1978.
The Senate will be voting on the flag protection amendment soon.
Daschle told the Associated Press earlier this week that the flag protection amendment is a “political ploy.”
The only statement of Tom Daschle, I ever agreed with.