Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 27, 1990 TAG: 9006270414
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"It's still a tough issue," Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., said Tuesday after the Senate's 58-42 vote for the measure fell nine votes short of the two-thirds margin required.
He said the dispute has "opened a wound in this nation," but voters are seeing "that the fabric of American society has not been threatened by flag burners . . . and in the end I think that's what turned this debate."
On the roll call, 38 Republicans voted for the amendment and seven opposed it. Among Democrats, 20 were for it and 35 against.
The vote was largely symbolic because the amendment, which had President Bush's backing, also fell short of the necessary two-thirds vote in the House last week. Democratic leaders attacked it as an infringement on freedom of speech.
The Senate pushed ahead with a vote on the amendment even though House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash., had said he would not schedule a new vote in his chamber regardless of how the Senate acted.
Critics of the proposed amendment said the Senate vote was designed primarily to put them on record on an emotionally charged issue in a way that could be used by conservative challengers in fall election campaigns.
Sponsors said they would keep campaigning for the amendment nevertheless.
"We'll see what happens in the days and weeks and months ahead," said Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas.
He said Americans were pained to see protesters show disrespect for the nation by burning the flag and had been counting on Congress to settle the issue once and for all with a constitutional amendment.
In a dramatic switch, Sen. I have concluded that our flag can better be protected by not tinkering with the First Amendment Sen. Charles Robb Democrat from Virginia Charles Robb, D-Va., declared he had changed his mind since backing the amendment last year.
Robb said that after the Supreme Court declared a Texas flag-burning law unconstitutional he had felt anger toward flag burners and "feared the visceral outrage of most Americans." He served in Vietnam as a Marine Corps officer.
"I have concluded that our flag can better be protected by not tinkering with the First Amendment" to the Constitution, Robb said.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., voted in favor of the amendment.
Sen. Howell Heflin, D-Ala., another amendment supporter, said, "Americanism cannot survive unless it has nationalism. . . . Americanism must have sacred symbols."
But Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., said his mail had turned against the amendment. And Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, said heavy debate over the issue in recent weeks may have changed some minds. "The more people learn about this, the more they hear discussion and hear all of the ramifications, the less likely they are to go for the amendment," he said.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on June 29, 1990\ The Associated Press in a story in Wednesday's paper erroneously quoted Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., as saying that when the Supreme Court overturned a Texas flag-burning law he "feared the visceral outrage of the American people." Robb said that he "shared the visceral outrage of the American people."
Memo: correction