The South Carolina legislature could move swiftly to take down the Confederate flag that is roiling the Republican presidential primary in the wake of a mass shooting at a black church in Charleston.
In doing so, the Republican-controlled legislature in this key early presidential primary state could save their party and its 2016 contenders from having to perpetually discuss the politically sensitive (and often disadvantageous) topic of racism rather than winning issues like the economy and national security.
The question is whether Republican leaders in the state capitol and GOP Gov. Nikki Haley, will act.
“The notion of a bill being introduced in December and debated next year doesn’t need to happen,” a Republican insider in Columbia, the state capital, told the Washington Examiner late Saturday. “The most straightforward path to removing the flag is to pass a permanent proviso in the fiscal-year 2016 budget, which is still in conference committee.”
This source, who requested anonymity in order to speak candidly but has extensive experience in state government, explained that this could done through an adjustment to the state spending plan called a “part 2 proviso.” According to this Republican, here’s how the process would work:
“The statute that put the flag at the Confederate Soldiers monument requires a two-thirds vote of both chambers to repeal it. The only bill that is left in play is the budget. And the budget bill always gets at least two-thirds support in both chambers on final passage.
“The Senate, by tradition, has not used part 2 provisos because this power has been abused in the past (that’s how video poker came to South Carolina, a Part 2 proviso).
“But the Senate, led by the most powerful legislator in the state, Sen. Hugh Leatherman, has a chance to take the flag down this year by demanding it be part of the budget.”
Leatherman is the president pro tempore of the South Carolina Senate and chairman of the chamber’s finance committee.
The Confederate that flies over the capitol grounds is part of a Confederate memorial and is protected by law — it can’t be taken down absent legislation passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. Memorials to the Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War are fairly common in southern states that were apart of the confederacy.
But no one was asking the Republican presidential candidates any questions about the stars and bars that flies in Columbia, until the horrific shooting that occurred Wednesday evening. Dylann Roof, 21, a white South Carolinian who had previously expressed racist sentiments and antipathy toward African-Americans, gunned down nine African-Americans as they worshipped inside the Emanuel AME church in Charleston.
The church is among the oldest continuously operating black churches in the U.S.
Since then, the Republican contenders have been peppered with questions about racism in the U.S. and whether the Confederate flag that flies on the grounds of the state capitol should be removed. This scrutiny is due in part to the fact that the Palmetto State is a key early primary state (it votes third on the 2016 calendar) and the GOP White House hopefuls are in an out of some South Carolina city on a near-daily basis.
Some Republicans have responded to questions about the flag gingerly, apparently wary of offending some of South Carolina’s conservative voter. In a tweet on Saturday, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, called for the flag to be taken down.
“Take down the #ConfederateFlag at the SC Capitol. To many, it is a symbol of racial hatred. Remove it now to honor #Charleston victims.”
Disclosure: The author’s wife works as an advisor to Scott Walker.
