Perry might catch flag flack in S.C

UPDATE: The original version of this post incorrectly stated that the Confederate flag flies over the South Carolina state House. Thank you to BLAZE reader HALVISfor pointing out the error. And shame on me, an S.C native, for forgetting that it was removed in the early 2000s.

When I spoke with the public communications officer of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday, she said the Confederate flag-license plate controversy wasn't "something you would expect the the governor” to weigh in on. "Traditionally in Texas, when a governor appoints a board [to oversee the DMV], the board does its job. That’s why you have a board," she said.

Rick Perry came out on the issue the next day anyway. "We don't need to be scraping old wounds," Perry said in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday, according to Statesman.com.

Those remarks might cause him some trouble in South Carolina, a state that takes the Confederate flag very seriously. It's one of only four in the South that has Confederate Memorial Day as an official state holiday.

From Talking Points Memo:

“That sounds a lot like pandering to me,” South Carolina state Sen. Lee Bright (R) told TPM. He’s unaffiliated in the primary, but said he likes the way Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann “stick to principles.”

[...]

But Bright wasn’t the only South Carolinian to say Perry’s in trouble now that he’s flipped on Confederate symbols. One unaffiliated Republican operative, who declined to speak on the record because of the divisive nature of the issue, also said Perry just dug himself a hole.

“For some people, the wound is still very raw from ‘The War Of Northern Aggression,’” the operative said. “[Perry’s] statement is probably dangerous.”