Amendment to Protect Flag Rejected by House

Brushing aside Republican threats to use the issue in campaign attacks, the House voted Thursday to kill a proposed constitutional amendment against desecrating the American flag.

Proponents of the measure, backed by President Bush, fell 34 votes short of gaining the two-thirds majority required to approve an addition to the Constitution. A large group of Democrats and a handful of Republicans combined to block approval after eight hours of emotional debate. The vote was 254 for the amendment and 177 against it.

Opponents, led by Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose), won surprising support from moderates and conservatives in assailing the amendment as an unprecedented bid to water down the Bill of Rights. Many said that they believed the issue had lost a lot of steam since last summer, when the Supreme Court ruled that flag burning is a constitutionally protected form of free speech.

Nevertheless, after the court confirmed its ruling in another decision last week, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) made it clear that the issue will be pressed in this year’s elections.

Dole said the issue would make a “good 30-second spot” on TV, while Gingrich said that it would help differentiate Republicans from Democrats on cultural values.

But House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) predicted Thursday that voters would reject a “crass politicization” of the issue.

“I think people are concerned about protecting the flag. But they are also concerned about protecting the constitutional liberties,” he said.

Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) said that “in Southern California, people are concerned about traffic congestion and the need to bring in more water. Voters in some races could be affected either way on an emotional issue like this, but I don’t think it will predominate.”

The defeated amendment would have authorized both Congress and state legislatures to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag. To take effect, it would have required two-thirds approval by both houses of Congress and approval by 38 of the 50 states.

The Senate will vote symbolically on the measure next week, largely to satisfy Republican demands for a recorded vote that could be used as campaign fodder. Senate Majority Whip Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), a leader of the opponents, said it appears that the measure will attract less than a two-thirds majority.

House Democratic leaders overrode a frantic stalling effort by amendment supporters, who had hoped to mobilize military veterans to lobby lawmakers this weekend.

“They were planning a mob scene, having veterans beat up on members when they went home,” Edwards said in an interview.

Would it have hurt the anti-amendment vote?

“It wouldn’t have helped,” he said.

After rejecting the amendment, the House defeated a hurriedly drafted bill that was aimed at giving limited protection to the flag in cases where damage is intended to “provoke imminent violence” or involves a flag on federal property.

Republicans, calling the proposed statute unconstitutional, derided it as mere political cover for Democrats who had voted against the constitutional amendment.

Proponents of the amendment argued passionately for its passage. “I ask you to catch a falling flag,” Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) said.

Foley, in a rare floor speech, countered that it would be “a strange irony” if a scattered few flag burners were to stampede Congress into trimming back the Constitution’s guarantee of free speech for the first time.

Appealing to a key bloc of conservatives, Foley said: “If it is not conservative to protect the Bill of Rights, I do not know what conservatism is.”

In a similar appeal, Rep. John Bryant (D-Tex.) chided Democrats who fear Dole and Gingrich’s threats of political retaliation. He said that their “cowardice is as bad as Republicans’ greed to win elections.”

Rep. Tim Valentine (D-N. C.)., who said that “over the rhetoric of the last few days, I have finally heard the voice of my conscience,” urged fellow conservatives to “not tear our national fabric asunder by surrendering our Constitution to the flag burners.”

On one side of the floor, Rep. James H. Quillen (R-Tenn.) displayed a huge photograph of the flag raised at Iwo Jima. On the other side, Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (Y.) held up various items decorated with the stars and stripes--socks, a bathing suit, panty hose, paper plates--and wondered if these represented flag desecrations barred by the proposed amendment.

If so, he said to waves of laughter, “we have factories of desecration.”

Several members protested that Congress had more important things to do. Rep. Major R. Owens (D-N. Y.) vented his frustration in a rap ditty: “Put hungry babies in a bag/ Wrap homeless folks in the flag . . ./ Wave a flag to wow the press/ Forget that 500 billion dollar S and L mess.”

Among California House members, all Republicans voted for the amendment but only two Democrats did so: Reps. Matthew G. Martinez of Monterey Park and Gary Condit of Ceres.