Legislator's Series of Flag Amendments Fail

The latest on the Confederate flag debate in South Carolina has continued to rage on as a series of amendments by state Representative Mike Pitts to take down each individual monument at the South Carolina Capitol on Wednesday have been ruled out of order by House Speaker Jay Lucas. Lucas said the only matters that could be taken up have to deal directly with the Confederate flag that flies beside a monument to Confederate soldiers on the front lawn of the Statehouse. Pitts was asking for a vote to get rid of statues honoring the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, soldiers from the Spanish-American War, Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton and the memorial to African-Americans built as part of the 2000 compromise that took the Confederate flag off the Statehouse dome. Referring to the place where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army at the end of the Civil War, Pitts said, "I'm starting to know how Lee felt at Appomattox."