Stars, Stripes and Scoundrels: Dems use flag as fig leafby Daniel ClarkIf it's true that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, then thatexplains the tendency of liberal Democrats to seek shelter behind theStars and Stripes.When Barack Obama tried to distance himself from the anti-Americanramblings of his spiritual advisor, Jeremiah Wright, he enlisted the helpof not one, but eight American flags. He must have figured that, with allthose banners standing behind him, he'd sound patriotic no matter what heactually said. That was apparently an accurate assessment, in fact, as fewaccounts of his widely lauded speech have bothered to note that heindirectly blamed Wright's hatred of America on America itself.This is the same Sen. Obama, remember, who had once worn an American flagpin on his lapel, but removed it in protest of the war in Iraq. The warcontinues, and so does Obama's protesting it; nevertheless, he has changedhis mind and embraced the American flag, now that he needs it as asecurity blanket.Bill Clinton affected a similar reconciliation back in 1994. When he'dbeen a student at Oxford during the Vietnam War, he had protested againsthis own country on foreign soil. He had by that point been drafted, buthad received an unprecedented deferment in exchange for an insincerepromise to join the ROTC. In a letter justifying his duplicity to his ROTCdirector, Col. Eugene Holmes, Clinton told the former POW and Bataan DeathMarch survivor about his "loathing the military." Solipsistically unawareof the insult he was delivering, he wrote in closing, "Merry Christmas."While Clinton was running for president in 1992, Col. Holmes warned of"the imminent danger to our country of a draft-dodger becomingCommander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States." In anaffidavit detailing the ways in which Clinton had misled him, the colonelexplained, "These actions cause me to question both his patriotism and hisintegrity."This personal history made President Clinton's presence at Normandy forthe 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion more than a little awkward. Asusual, he figured it was nothing that a little superficial contrivancecouldn't fix. Using an American soldier's grave as the setting for aphoto-op, he picked up a small flag that had obviously been left there onthe ground as a prop. He then unfurled and planted it, in a thoroughlyunconvincing moment of faux-spontaneity.When it comes to cynical use of the American flag for political cover,nobody can top Sen. John Kerry. When he was with Vietnam Veterans Againstthe War, Kerry co-authored a book whose cover featured a gang of hippieshoisting an upside-down flag, in a mock Iwo Jima pose. Included in itspages was the false testimony he infamously related to the Senate in 1971,in which he slandered his fellow soldiers with accusations of murder, rapeand mutilation. Kerry had also thrown away his military ribbons inprotest, and secretly met with the Vietcong in Paris, as a representativeof the VVAW.By the time Kerry ran for president a few decades later, he tried his bestto present himself instead as Audie Murphy, Sergeant York and Popeye, allrolled into one. At the 2004 Democratic National Convention, he comicallysurrounded himself with American flags, including an enormous one hangingdirectly above the podium. "We call her Old Glory," he lectured. "For us,that flag is the most powerful symbol of who we are and what we believein." Whatever desecrating the flag had said about who he is and what hebelieves in, he didn't explain.Like Obama and Clinton, Sen. Kerry was using the American flag as a figleaf, to conceal his naked hostility toward the United States. For thesethree, Old Glory plays the same role as the betrayed wives of sleazypoliticians like Jim McGreevey, Larry Craig, Eliot Spitzer, and . well,Bill Clinton. Like those women, American flags have been repeatedly placednext to their unfaithful mates, as if to signify acceptance of them,despite their faults. The image being presented is that it is the flagsthat are endorsing these liberal Democrats, instead of the reverse. Unlikethe politician's wives, however, the flags cannot consent to thisdegradation.That's why these men are able to manipulate our national symbol in amanner apparently inconsistent with their true beliefs, withoutconsidering themselves to be hypocrites. For them to use the Stars andStripes to mop up their political messes is simply another of their usualdesecrations.-- Daniel Clark is a Staff Writer for the New Media Alliance. The NewMedia Alliance is a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers,journalists and grass-roots media outlets.