Senate rejects flag desecration amendment

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - A constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration died in a
Senate cliffhanger Tuesday, a single vote short of the support needed to send 
it to the states for ratification and four months before voters elect a new 
Congress.

The 66-34 tally in favor of the amendment was one less than the two-thirds 
required. The House surpassed that threshold last year, 286-130.

President Bush, who supports the amendment, called the failed vote 
unfortunate and commended Republicans and Democrats who voted to move 
the ratification process forward. In a statement, Bush said he continued to 
believe that "the American people deserve the opportunity to express their 
views on this important issue."

The proposed amendment, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch (news, bio, voting 
record), R-Utah, read: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical 
desecration of the flag of the United States."

It represented Congress' response to Supreme Court rulings in 1989 and 1990 
that burning and other desecrations of the flag are protected as free speech 
by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Senate supporters said the flag amounts to a national monument in cloth that 
represents freedom and the sacrifice of American troops.

"Countless men and women have died defending that flag," said Majority 
Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., closing two days of debate. "It is but a small humble 
act for us to defend it."

Our Government needs to focus on important things like where the money is disappearing to in Iraq and why our President believes himself above the Law. Accountability is a much bigger issue than this time and money wasting Flag Amendment.