Confederates in the attic

In the wake of the Lott debacle, President Bush faces questions about the way his campaign used the Confederate flag to win the South Carolina primary.

By Anthony York

Dec 20, 2002 | With Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's hold on his job hanging by a thread, thanks to his praise for Strom Thurmond's segregationist 1948 presidential campaign, other Republicans, including President Bush, are drawing more scrutiny for their own ties to Southern segregationists and pro-Confederacy groups.

On Wednesday former President Bill Clinton accused GOP leaders of hypocrisy for calling on Lott to step aside and yet using race-baiting tactics to win elections in the South. Clinton pointed to this year's Georgia governor's race, when Republican Sonny Perdue used the promise of a referendum on the Confederate flag as a device to rally rural white conservatives. The incumbent, Democrat Roy Barnes, had pushed to change the state flag, which prominently featured the Confederate flag.

The flag also played a key role in Bush's victory in the Republican primaries of 2000, becoming a pivotal issue in the fight between Bush and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. In the wake of the Lott debacle, Bush's maneuvers during one nasty primary are raising new questions. Coming under scrutiny is Bush's connection to Richard Hines, the former managing editor of Southern Partisan magazine, former state legislator and current Beltway lobbyist who helped Bush defeat McCain in South Carolina.

Hines helped sink McCain's campaign with a last-minute mailer suggesting the Arizona Republican did not support forces who wanted the Confederate flag restored to the top of the South Carolina statehouse. (Although McCain changed his position after the election, he in fact supported the pro-flag forces at the time.) The Bush campaign denied any role in the mailing, even though Hines is an old friend of Bush's South Carolina strategist, Warren Tompkins -- a Lee Atwater protégé widely credited with turning the Bush candidacy around by launching a vicious campaign against McCain, who was coming off a big win in the New Hampshire primary.

As Newsweek magazine reported after the South Carolina primary: "Tompkins' first move was to have Bush appear at a school (Bob Jones U.) that banned interracial dating, because he said, 'we had to build a wall between McCain and the social conservatives.'" Another key development, Newsweek said, was when "McCain was accused of waffling on the Confederate flag in a letter by Richard Hines."

Bush disavowed any connection with Hines and the flag mailer after the South Carolina primary. But Hines' own Web site contradicts Bush's denial of a political tie between the two men. "His history of political activism was, most recently, extended to aid the campaign of President Bush in the South Carolina primary of the 2000 Presidential election," the site states, adding that Hines, "has an active voice in the current Bush administration."

During the 2000 campaign, Bush faced criticism for other gestures to pro-Confederacy groups. The magazine Southern Exposure revealed letters Bush wrote as Texas governor hailing the United Daughters of the Confederacy's 100th anniversary and honoring the Sons of Confederate Veterans. While such Confederate groups often insist they promote "heritage, not hate," many of their leaders have been tied to segregationist causes and right-wing Republican politics.

It's easy to see why Bush might want to distance himself from Hines. In 1998, Hines was an official in the Heritage Recognition Association, whose president denounced the NAACP as "a racist hate group." Hines, a member of Sons of Confederate Veterans, criticized Gov. James Gilmore of Virginia for issuing a resolution during Confederate Heritage month that acknowledged the horrors of slavery.

"Why is the South singled out?" Hines asked, noting that other nations also had slaves.

In 1996, Hines held up a Confederate battle flag while protesting the placement of a statue of African-American tennis star Arthur Ashe on Richmond, Va.'s Monument Avenue, which features statues of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate heroes. "The intent of the placement of the statue was to debunk our heritage," Hines said.

Hines has also organized numerous events marking the births of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Robert E. Lee. In 1994, Hines was stopped by Capitol police when he tried to display a Confederate flag at an event at the Capitol celebrating Lee's birthday.

But Hines is no stranger to mainstream Republican politics. He was co-chairman of Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign in South Carolina and worked on Pat Robertson's failed 1988 presidential run. He and his wife, Patricia, have both served in Republican administrations. Under Reagan, Richard Hines worked at the General Services Administration while Patricia worked in the White House Office of Domestic Affairs. Patricia Hines went on to become a deputy assistant secretary of the Army during the first Bush administration.

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