Now that’s a catch!
From the presidency of Woodrow Wilson — who, despite being admirable in other capacities, was an ardent segregationist — until 1990, US 
presidents sent a wreath to the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day to honor Jefferson Davis. The first President Bush stopped the practice in 1990. But, according to Time.com, this President Bush restarted that tradition when he became president in 2001.
Why this renewed affection for a failed leader of a failed rebellion against the government of the United States?
The Time.com story points to a logical suspect: Richard T. Hines.
Who’s Richard T. Hines? Hines is a big-time DC lobbyist whose website says he “has an active voice in the current Bush Administration.” But don’t take his word for it. He played a key role in helping President Bush rescue his presidential campaign by whacking John McCain in the South Carolina primary in 2000. More to the point, Hines is a leading neo-Confederate and the former Managing Editor of the Southern Partisan, the crypto-racist magazine which is the venue of choice for Republican politicians looking to cater to the neo-confederate yahoo vote.
Hines is also a leader of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, one of the groups involved in organizing the annual event to which the White House sent the wreath. According to this article by one-time TPM advisor Sean Wilentz …
Hines first gained national media attention in 1996 when, in a public protest over the unveiling of a monument to the black tennis great Arthur Ashe in Richmond, Va., he unfurled the battle flag of his great-grandfather’s regiment and denounced the statue as “a sharp stick in the eye of those who honor the Confederate heritage.”
Now at this point I was going to continue on with the post and explain how this is the White House — probably Karl Rove, actually — talking out of both sides of its mouth. First they denounce Trent Lott for his nostalgia for the 
segregationist past. Here they’re pandering to these neo-Confederate yahoos. But you know how that post would unfold, right? So let’s just pretend I wrapped the post up like that and get on to the fun stuff. Deal? Great. Here goes …
If you go to the Sons of Confederate Veterans website you’ll find these instructions for how to report a ‘Heritage Violation.’ What’s a ‘Heritage Violation’? “Any attack upon our Confederate Heritage, or the flags, monuments, and symbols which represent it, can be termed a Heritage Violation,” says the SCV website.
“Any disrespect shown to our Confederate Heritage should be considered as serious,” continues the SCV. But it’s important not to let the emotion of the moment get the better of you!
SCV members are reminded, however, to remain calm and to respond in a manner befitting the dignity of the heritage we seek to preserve. Those persons or groups who cause a heritage violation often do so in a manner deliberately intended to provoke us into intemperate response. Do not play into their hands by over-reacting. We should always handle ourselves as the responsible Southern gentlemen that we are.
One of the best ways to stifle your Southern fury, it seems, is to follow the SCV’s ridiculous and arcane procedures for reporting a ‘heritage violation’ — procedures which may well have been secretly devised by some right-minded group like the NAACP in order to get heritage-sensitive, neo-Confederate whack-jobs running around in circles and thus not acting out in some more unfortunate fashion …
Whom do you report it to? Your first contact should be your Camp Commander or Heritage Officer. They should in turn report the heritage violation to the Heritage Chairman in your Brigade. The Brigade Heritage Chairman should then contact his Brigade Commander and the Division Heritage Chairman. Heritage violation responses are best handled at the local level, in cooperation with Brigade and Division level officers. A plan of action to deal with the heritage violation should be developed by these Brigade and Division officers, acting in concert with the local camp and member (or other person) that initially reported the violation.
The Division Heritage Chairman should report the violation to the Division Commander, and the SCVâs Chief of Heritage Defense. The Chief of Heritage Defense can call upon the national organization to respond to the violation, if such action is required. The Chief of Heritage Defense is assisted by a members of a Heritage Defense Committee, appointed by the Commander-in-Chief.
For the Chief of Heritage Defense to have a heritage situation officially deemed as a violation by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, he must have consent from the Commander-in-Chief and such other members of the General Executive Council as the Commander-in-Chief may designate, as well as a consensus of the Heritage Defense Committee.
Did Trent Lott call in a ‘heritage violation’ on W? Is that why we haven’t heard from him in a while? He’s trying to master the reporting requirements?
