One Party’s Trash Is Another Party’s Treasure

06 Sep, 2008 by John Stephenson

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My co-blogger Roger wrote about this on the September 1st, and yes the entire Democratic party should be ashamed. Of course, they aren’t. So, why wouldn’t people question your patriotism when you treat the flag like this?

This morning, Republicans tell me that a worker at Invesco Field in Denver saved thousands of unused flags from the Democratic National Convention that were headed for the garbage. Guerrilla campaigning. They will use these flags at their own event today in Colorado Springs with John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Before McCain speaks today, veterans will haul these garbage bags filled with flags out onto the stage — with dramatic effect, no doubt — and tell the story.

“What you see in the picture I sent you is less than half of total flags,” a Republican official emailed. “We estimate the total number to be around 12,000 small flags and one full size 3Ã—5 flag.”

I’m not sure what the DNC was supposed to do with unused hand-flags, frankly. But the Republicans are obviously questioning someone’s patriotism here.

Yet the story has a happy ending. One party’s trash is another party’s treasure! Country first indeed!

The flags are on their way to a McCain Palin rally in Colorado Springs where the Boy Scouts and Veterans of Foreign Wars will distribute them to the GOP faithful.

FOX:

Boy Scouts have arrived with 84 trash bags full of bundles of flags at the site of a McCain rally scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. local time in Colorado Springs.

The campaign says the flags were recovered from Invesco Field after the Democrats concluded their convention there, and they are going to be used as part of the warm-up ceremonies before McCain takes the stage for the rally.

FOX News has been told a vendor at Invesco Field found the flags, which were going to be thrown out, and turned them over to the McCain campaign.

Veterans in Colorado Springs are expected to distribute the flags to the audience at the rally.

Obama has faced questions about his patriotism since the beginning of the Democratic primary, and has set up a Web site specifically designed to fight such charges.

Ed Morrissey:

Didn’t anyone make arrangements for better disposal of these flags from Invesco? At the very least, they were an investment that could have been re-used at rallies in Colorado as well as the rest of the nation during the general election. Instead, they’ve handed a dramatic moment to John McCain and Sarah Palin, as well as relieved them of the cost of 12,000 such flags — as well as a full 3?x5? flag that also wound up in the trash.

Remember when the DNCC was supposed to be the “greenest convention ever”? How they worried about the color of the food and using organic materials in their merchandise? I guess we can see where the “green” concern ends … at red, white, and blue.

By the way, just so you know…here is the proper way to dispose of the American flag.

Drew M.

Now they’ll whine about how it wasn’t their fault and it’s not like Obama was personally tossing flags in the trash and in some sense that’s true. But appearances matter and this just feeds into the perception that patriotism as most Americans understand it (something other than endless criticism of the country) is simply a card Democrats play at election time.

I wonder why anyone would get that idea?