After all, whether Alabama should display the Confederate flag is ultimately a matter for the people of Alabama, not a presidential candidate.

A civil rights leader in Alabama today accused former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani of flip-flopping and pandering on the confederate flag during his visit to the state capitol earlier in the week.

Giuliani, currently the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, has in the past seemed to voice personal opposition to the flag, which to many African-Americans is an offensive symbol of bigotry and slavery.

But when the former New York mayor visited Montgomery, Ala., on Tuesday he said simply that the matter was a state issue.

Edward Vaughn, the president of the NAACP Alabama State Conference, who was in Montgomery that day, told ABC News that Giuliani's remarks disappointed him.

"Giuliani is posturing himself to try to get the conservative, right-wing, Southern white vote in Alabama," Vaughn said. "He used to oppose the flag, but now he's backtracked because he's running for president."

The Giuliani campaign responded that the mayor's position has consistently been that this issue should be decided by each individual state.

Personally, I have no objection to such displays -- simply as a matter of historical acknowledgment of the Civil War in the interest of accuracy. As such, I oppose efforts at historical revisionism by BOTH SIDES of the controversy.

Posted by: Greg at 01:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 241 words, total size 2 kb.