New election season

It's happening again. They're coming out of the woodwork and starting to say all kinds of things -- the candidates. What does it portend for the noblest yet most-embattled cultural symbol on earth today? Another issue of The Real News, this organization's print newspaper, is in the works, and here is the story atop page one:

Sheheen to remove Confederate flag from Soldier’s Monument if elected governor

By William Carter, D.C.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen has said that “if elected in November I will be open to discussing the removal of the Confederate flag from the State House grounds” (The State, July 1, page 6A). This is a clear warning to all South Carolinians who respect their state’s history and heritage that Sheheen will dishonor the men who answered the call to defend our state from a federal invasion, should he be elected. That means he would scrap the so-called compromise made in 2000 by the legislature (which denied the citizens a vote on this issue) and completely remove the flag in yet another inside deal.
Sheheen also dangerously postures about “openness” and illegal aliens in South Carolina. No wonder he has received the endorsement of the S.C. Chamber of Commerce, which conducted an economic blackmail campaign for years to remove the Confederate flag from the S.C. Capitol building and House and Senate chambers. The Chamber has also endorsed amnesty for illegal aliens in South Carolina and opposed E-verify legislation in previous years, a program which forces contractors to hire only citizens or people legally in the state when doing work paid for by state contracts.
All heritage groups in South Carolina must actively get the word out that Sheheen is the enemy of Confederate heritage preservation. Let’s make the candidacy of Vincent Sheheen a referendum on the flag!
While the S.C. Conservative Action Council supports the flag at the Soldiers Monument, we ultimately demand a public referendum to place the flag back on the dome. The so-called flag compromise of 2000 is an insult to the memory of the hundreds of thousands who suffered and died during the Federal invasion of South Carolina, which ended with Sherman’s burning, looting and rape of Columbia (see related story: “The Burning of Columbia,” page 4, by the Rev. Dr. John Bachman, dated Sept. 14, 1865, an eyewitness account of a Civil War atrocity.) Vincent Sheheen will compound the insult if elected governor.