The right to wave the Confederate flag in Virginia has "always" (for like 10 or 20 years, max) been a difficult issue for the state's political candidates. On the one hand, they don't want to trash the Confederate flag, which many see as a proud symbol of the state's history -- specifically the part of "history" when the state left its country to keep owning black slaves. On the other hand, candidates don't want to fully cheer on the flag, which offends many people due to the aforementioned history of owning black slaves. Among other things, slavery applied downward pressure on wages!
No politician in a statewide race wants to bring up this contentious wedge issue! Which makes it odd that Creigh Deeds, Democrat for governor, would do exactly that.
The Deeds campaign recently linked to a photo on the campaign's [sigh] Twitter page "suggesting" that opponent Bob McDonnell's "staffers flew the flag at their booth at a sportsman's show." McDonnell's campaign responded indignantly to the accusation, while the rest of the state continued not caring.
McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin added today (from the Washington Post):
This issue has arisen because Creigh Deeds' flailing campaign tried to launch another divisive attack, this time over an intentionally misrepresented photograph. Proven wrong, the Deeds' campaign was once again exposed as being completely unable to address the important issues of top concern to the voters. Bob McDonnell does not own a Confederate flag. The campaign does not display Confederate flags. Once again, Bob McDonnell is the only candidate talking about jobs, the economy, public safety, transportation, education and government reform. We will continue to stay focused on jobs, the economy, public safety, transportation, education and government reform. And we will leave the errant, divisive, and distracting attacks to Creigh Deeds.
Yeah, we stopped reading at the "Once again..." sentence, too.
Jim Newell writes for Wonkette and IvyGate.
