The New York Times

December 7, 2007,  11:03 am

Flag Wavers Target Thompson, Romney

By Sarah Wheaton

Fred D. Thompson may not campaign very much, but when he does, he can expect a crowd in South Carolina: protesters who are angry over his disapproval of the public display of the Confederate flag.

The protesters, wearing red, white and blue and carrying signs reading, “South Carolina Hates Fred Thompson,” greeted Mr. Thompson at an appearance in Lexington, S.C., on Wednesday. Calling themselves the South Carolina League of the South, they said they are angry about comments he made at the CNN/YouTube debate on Nov. 28.

Mr. Thompson said that the flag “is a symbol of racism” for many Americans and should not be flown at public places.

The group also protested at an event Tuesday with Mitt Romney, who had said at the same debate, “That flag, frankly, is divisive and shouldn’t be shown.”

The league claims responsibility for having “ended John McCain’s career in South Carolina.”

“We do not forget. We do not forgive,” said Jim Hanks, the chairman. “So we will see to it that Fred Thompson does not go away from South Carolina with anything.”

Confederate flag supporters protest Thompson

LEXINGTON, SC (CNN) - Eight Confederate flag-waving men protested outside a Fred Thompson campaign stop Wednesday evening, one week after Thompson and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney criticized the flag during the CNN/YouTube debate in Florida.

Clad in jackets bearing the Confederate flag and holding signs reading "South Carolina hates Fred Thompson" and "Fred Thompson go home," the protesters said Thompson was not a "true southerner."

Jim Hanks, chairman of the South Carolina League of the South, said Thompson that Thompson's answer at the debate was worse than Romney's because Thompson is from a southern state.

"He's masquerading as a good ole boy," Hanks said.

Asked about the flag during last week's debate, Thompson said that, "as far as a public place is concerned, I am glad that people have made the decision not to display it as a prominent flag, symbolic of something, at a state capital."

But the former Senator from Tennessee qualified his statement: "As a part of a group of flags or something of that nature, you know, honoring various service people at different times in different parts of the country, I think that's different."

The Confederate flag on display at the South Carolina Statehouse waves next to the Confederate soldier monument there.