Jared Huffman at center of Confederate flag battle in Congress

The Republican-controlled House scrapped votes Thursday on whether to permit the Confederate battle flag at some federal cemeteries. The retreat escalated a ferocious attack by North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman and other Democrats complaining the banner celebrates a murderous, racist past.

Huffman, D-San Rafael, called the move “shameful,” saying Republicans were afraid to go on the record with their opinions on the divisive banner.

“It would have required every member of Congress to actually vote up or down on whether the Confederate battle flag would be displayed, so they pulled it,” Huffman said.

Huffman’s comments echoed sharp rhetoric by his fellow Democrats on the House floor.

“What exactly is the tradition of the Confederate battle flag that we’re supporting?” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. demanded as racial political tensions flared - ironically enough, on the day the same banner was losing its place of honor on the grounds outside the South Carolina Capitol.

“Is it slavery, rape, kidnap, treason, genocide or all of the above?” he asked.

No Republican rose to respond, although some officials privately charged that Democrats had falsely accused GOP lawmakers of racism. They noted the proposal would merely have written Obama administration policy into law.

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, referring to the imminent removal of the flag in South Carolina, said it was time for “adults here in Congress to actually sit down and have a conversation about how to address the issue.”

In response, Democrats ratcheted up their criticism. Huffman played a key role in the controversy after introducing on Tuesday amendments to a congressional spending bill that would have explicitly barred people from displaying the flag at cemeteries operated by the National Park Service. It also would have banned the sale of Confederate flag merchandise at national park stores.

Huffman’s proposal won majority support in the House, but shortly after, Republicans withdrew the spending bill. Some Democrats opposed it because they want more spending and some Republicans were unhappy with the prohibition on the flag.

“There shouldn’t be this kind of politics involved,” Huffman added. “That’s what’s distressing about this - I look around the country right now and people everywhere are stepping up and realizing that we need to seriously restrict where these symbols of hatred and racism and slavery are displayed.”

On Thursday, Republicans made a compromise proposal that would have permitted the limited display of the Confederate flag at Park Service-run cemeteries in states that observe a holiday commemorating the Confederacy, and only at the graves of rebels who died in the Civil War.

In line with a Park Service memorandum from 2010, it would have affected 10 graveyards, including four in Tennessee, three in Virginia and one each in Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia.

That proposal was withdrawn.

The number of graves that would have been affected was unknown, but Park Service spokeswoman Kathy Kupper said there was one at Andersonville cemetery in Georgia and two each at Shiloh in Tennessee and Vicksburg in Mississippi.

For her part, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi offered legislation to remove all state flags containing any portion of the Confederate battle flag from the House side of the Capitol, and said she would try again today.

Huffman said the issue isn’t going away.

“We’re not going to let this go,” Huffman said. “It’s going to come back in one way or the other. The Confederate battle flag should have been banned a long, long time ago.”

This story includes information from Staff Writer Angela Hart and the Associated Press.