House Speaker John Boehner was obviously not confident his party would do the right thing
As the Confederate flag comes down in South Carolina, congressional Republicans are trying to regain their footing after a disaster of a day Thursday, in which House leadership
canceled a vote on an appropriations bill to avoid an awkward vote on a Republican pro-Confederate flag amendment, only to be
ambushed by Nancy Pelosi with a flag resolution of her own. One of the things Republicans will have to get past, besides the public embarrassment of keeping the nation behind South Carolina on matters Confederate, is the
internal finger-pointing:
Idaho Republican Mike Simpson criticized fellow House GOP members, and said they effectively handed Democrats a messaging gift.
"We put our heads like a pumpkin on a stick and we've given them a baseball bat," Simpson said. [...]
Simpson, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee argued those Republicans who wanted the change put the rest of the party on the spot, and complained they weren't willing to show up during the contentious floor debate. He noted that Democrats are saying "'Republicans are wrapping themselves in the Confederate battle flag' - it's bulls---. I'll vote against the amendment and so will 99% of Republicans, but these guys if they want to defend their vote go ahead and vote for it."
But obviously Republican leadership wasn't confident that a PR-friendly majority of Republicans would vote against the amendment, or else was too afraid of the people supporting it, to take the risk of holding that vote. Which means that Republicans are indeed wrapping themselves in the Confederate battle flag—or at least deferring to the members of their party who are doing just that.