Menendez - Bergen Record - All on Menendez' vote on flag-burning amendment

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Published in the Bergen Record, Monday, June 12, 2006

All eyes on Menendez

Monday, June 12, 2006

By HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

No matter what he does, Sen. Robert Menendez is going to end up angering some veterans later this month when he votes on a constitutional amendment authorizing Congress to ban flag burning.

Joseph Gugliuzza of Ocean Township, who recently stepped down as state commander of the American Legion, is expecting Menendez to vote for the proposed amendment, as he did five previous times in the House.

Bill Kane of Westwood, a Vietnam-era veteran who is president of the state Industrial Union Council, wants Menendez to realize that amending the Constitution to restrict free speech is a slippery slope, and Democrats need to stand up to "right-wing lunatics."

Menendez says he's listening to both sides before deciding how to vote. He supported the amendment in the past because, he said, the flag is "the unifying symbol for all our people" and burning one is more an act of provocation or even violence than an expression of free speech.

"We punish people for painting a swastika on a building, and we punish people for cross burning. Some might claim that's free speech, too. I think not," Menendez said.

Advocates for the amendment hailed Menendez's appointment in January because they believe it put them just one vote away from the 67 votes needed to send the one-sentence amendment -- "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." -- to the states for ratification.

The New Jersey Legislature approved a non-binding resolution in 1993 by votes of 76-1 in the Assembly and 36-0 in the Senate calling on Congress to propose the amendment. Similar resolutions proposed in 2000, 2004 and in January have not advanced in either house in Trenton.

Since Congress began considering a constitutional amendment in 1990, in response to Supreme Court rulings that struck down flag desecration laws on free-speech grounds, the proposal has repeatedly passed the House and then failed or died without a vote in the Senate.

No senator from New Jersey has voted for it, with Bill Bradley, Robert G. Torricelli and Frank R. Lautenberg all voting "no." Governor Corzine also opposed it, but no vote was taken during the five years he was a senator.

In the House, a steadily increasing number of New Jersey representatives supported the measure, with the delegation breaking 11-2 in favor of it in the most recent vote, in June 2005. Only Democratic Reps. Donald Payne of Newark and Rush Holt of Pennington opposed it.

"The national organization was jubilant" when Menendez was appointed as Corzine's replacement, the American Legion's Gugliuzza said.

"Men shed their blood to protect that flag," he said. "To not be able to protect the very flag they died for is totally wrong."

Gugliuzza said he tried calling Menendez four times to confirm his support and ask him to sign on as a Senate co-sponsor. He said he was told by an aide that Menendez could not because "he was under a lot of pressure from within not to vote for it, but at this time he is going to vote for the amendment," Gugliuzza said.

Menendez said he has a different responsibility representing the entire state than he had representing one House district based in Hudson County.

"So on all of these issues, regardless of how I voted in the past, I have been listening to the people of this state and their views," Menendez said. "I'm listening to New Jerseyans and I will come to a conclusion as we approach it, I guess in the next week or so."

Kane, the Industrial Union Council president, is urging Menendez to reverse his position.

"Once we start messing with the Constitution, it's a slippery slope, especially these days," he said. "You've got right-wing lunatics who want to change the Constitution for every thing they can think of. If the extreme right wing had their way, I'd be afraid to see what the constitution would look like. It certainly wouldn't look like the U.S.A."

Kane said that if someone had burned a flag in front of him when he got out of the 173rd Airborne Division after Vietnam, "I probably would have thumped them." But he said that as he grew older and got involved in litigation over unions' and employees' free-speech rights as a United Auto Workers officer, he came to revere First Amendment protections, even for speech that infuriated him.

"If that amendment passes in Washington, then that makes flag burning the issue to be debated in the election in November, and I don't think that's good for the Democratic Party," Kane said.

Menendez's Republican opponent in the November election, state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. of Westfield, supports the amendment.

"I think the flag is a unique entity, not only because of the symbolism but because of the unity it provides for the country," Kean said.

Peter Woolley, a political scientist at Fairleigh Dickinson University, doubted the issue would be much of a factor in the Kean-Menendez race. To begin with, he said, very few voters list flag burning as a vital issue that will decide their vote.

"It tends to be one of those symbolic issues that reinforce people's allegiances rather than a substantive issue that drives them from one candidate to another," Woolley said.

If Menendez votes for the amendment, he can say he's being consistent with his past position, Woolley said.

"If he's attacked by the left, it's only going to help him portray himself as a little bit more in the center, and nobody from the left is going to stay home or go vote for the Republican candidate because of it," Woolley said. "If he votes against it, it's hard to see it become a central issue in the campaign."

The Citizens Flag Alliance lists eight Democrats, including Menendez, among its tally of 66 supporters of the amendment. Three Republicans who have not signed on as co-sponsors -- Robert Bennett of Utah, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky -- are being targeted to provide the 67th vote.

"We're hoping they will follow the will of their party," said Marty Justis, executive director of the alliance, a coalition of 145 groups.

E-mail: jackson@northjersey.com
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FAST FACTS

What the amendment says:

The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.

Where it stands:

Passed the House with necessary two-thirds vote in 2005; vote expected in Senate later this month. Advocates say that assuming Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey votes for it, as he has five times previously, it is one vote shy of passage.

What's next:

If the Senate approves with 67 votes, amendment goes to the states. The approval of 38 legislatures is needed for ratification.


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