Rudy Giuliani, who recently said that he would have backed efforts to keep Terri Schiavo "alive," has now declared, before a swooning crowd at the Alabama state capitol, that he believes that the decision to fly the Confederate flag on state property ought be "left to the states." The Confederacy was, should Giuliani need any reminder, from the firing on Fort Sumter, an act of treason against the United States. Never mind the crime against humanity that the Confederacy was formed to protect or the lives that were lost in order to defeat that treason. Of course, an individual who wants to fly the Confederate flag or put its likeness on the back of his pick-up truck is perfectly permitted to do so, just as one can legally fly a Nazi flag outside his house or goose-step around his neighborhood wearing a swastika. But the same freedom of expression should not apply to government institutions (in this case, state legislators and the public property in which they conduct their legislative business). John McCain had the honesty to admit that his back-and-forth on the issue during the 2000 Republican Presidential primary was "worse than waffling." Regarding the flag, he originally was for states' rights, then came out against local prerogative in an act of finger-to-the-wind politics that presaged much of what we're seeing today in his current presidential campaign. Perhaps Giuliani will take a cue from his primary opponent and realize it's best to be unambiguously opposed to state governments expressing nostalgia for a symbol that represents human bondage and historic treason. --James Kirchick