Washington flummoxed over federal Confederate flag displays

In recent weeks, Republicans quietly dumped a provision preventing the flag from being flown over mass graves of Confederate soldiers from broader legislation to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs.

While Republicans in Washington ducked the Confederate flag issue, the legislature of South Carolina — dominated by tea party Republicans and including many black Democrats — voted overwhelmingly to remove the flag from the Capitol grounds in Columbia.

Ryan approved a move to block the Mississippi flag, which incorporates the Confederate battle flag in its top inner corner, from being restored to its display in a passageway between the Capitol and a House office building.

Republicans negotiating the final bill to fund the Veterans Affairs department abandoned the provision despite the House vote in May.

Republicans rammed the bill through the House last week, but Senate Democrats blocked it on Tuesday, angered by the way Republicans had funded the Zika fight and the restrictions they imposed on money for Planned Parenthood.