2 GOP Senators Change Minds, Will Oppose Flag Amendment

WASHINGTON — Sens. John C. Danforth (R-Mo), who confessed a “mistake of the heart,” and Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) repudiated their support today for a constitutional amendment to outlaw desecration of the American flag.

The two GOP senators, breaking with the majority of Republicans, announced they will vote against the constitutional amendment even though they are original co-sponsors. The announcements were a stinging setback for the measure strongly backed by President Bush.

Danforth and Rudman joined two other Republicans, Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Gordon J. Humphrey (R-N.H.) in opposition, sharply increasing prospects that the constitutional amendment, which would be the 27th, will be killed when the Senate votes, possibly Wednesday.

The constitutional amendment needs a two-thirds majority or 67 votes to pass. If Republicans hold all their other votes--no certainty--they would need to pick up 26 Democrats and so far, only Sens. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), Alan J. Dixon (D-Ill.) and Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) have declared their support.

The proposed constitutional amendment states that “the Congress and the states shall have the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.”

The preamble declares that “physical desecration” includes, but is not limited to, such acts as burning, mutilating, defacing, defiling or trampling on the flag or “displaying the flag in a contemptuous manner.”