That’s if you ask the DNC, anyway. They couldn’t seem to find a better use for 12,000 American flags used at the convention besides throwing them in a bunch of Hefty bags and leaving them next to a dumpster. Waiting for “storage”, they say… which makes sense and all, because I always leave important things next to the dumpster if I don’t want them thrown away.

Republicans tell me that a worker at Invesco Field in Denver saved thousands of unused flags from the Democratic National Convention that were headed for the garbage. Guerrilla campaigning. They will use these flags at their own event today in Colorado Springs with John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Before McCain speaks today, veterans will haul these garbage bags filled with flags out onto the stage — with dramatic effect, no doubt — and tell the story.

“What you see in the picture I sent you is less than half of total flags,” a Republican official emailed. “We estimate the total number to be around 12,000 small flags and one full size 3×5 flag.”

Team Obama responded with a weak defense:

Stories circulating about flags from the Democratic National Convention are false. More than 125,000 American-made flags were distributed at the Convention – any flags removed from the Convention after the event were taken without authorization. It’s disappointing that someone would take American flags without authorization and then falsely describe their intended purpose. We have the utmost respect for the American flag and it’s sad to see them being used for a cheap political stunt.

But the Denver Post blogger, David Harsanyi, has been paying attention to this story. Here’s an interesting update which pretty much blows Obama’s defense wide open:

I just spoke with the person at Invesco who found the flags and he thinks both sides are exaggerating a bit. The person claims the majority of the bags with flags in them were near the trash, on a dock, and would have been thrown away. The person thinks it was probably an “oversight” by the Democrats rather than any nefarious plot against the flag. But the person doesn’t believe anyone was coming to get them: “The flags were there for a week and a day and no one came looking for them.”

Now, no one thinks that this was some nefarious plot that the Obama campaign and the Democrats cooked up to destroy American flags. It does, however, make one contemplate how much respect the Democrats have for the flags when you see pictures like these:

Redstate’s got even more pictures.

Come on, does anyone believe those flags were just left there for “storage”, or that they were “stolen”, as the Obama camp is claiming? As Ed points out,

Why would a manufacturer provide a refund on open product? They certainly couldn’t resell them, especially not after being left like this at Invesco.

12,000 flags must have cost at least $2,000 or so, and probably more. Once Democrats discovered the “theft”, why didn’t they report it to the police? It’s been more than a week apparently since they were “stolen”, and Team Obama just discovered it?

Leaving material in and around dumpsters, especially in Hefty bags, makes it look like trash. That’s hardly a way to store American flags, and it’s certainly not a way to keep janitors and waste management people from taking them to landfills.

If the handling of the flags by the Obama campaign and DNC organizers wasn’t bad enough, we also have the pictures of flags mixed in with actual trash. While obviously the Obama campaign can’t control what individual Democrats did with their individual flags, it does paint a not-too-pretty picture of the level of respect Democrats in general seem to hold for the flag.

Of course, what Democrats considered trash, the McCain campaign considered treasure. They took them and used them for their own rally, delivered to them by a local Boy Scout troop (and we all know how Democrats feel about the Boy Scouts). Gateway Pundit’s got video:

The Obama campaign didn’t have to make it look like this. If this truly did offend them, and if it wasn’t what they intended, then where’s the outrage and anger? Where are the apologies about the treatment of the American flags? Rather than saying they were most definitely not supposed to be abandoned like trash and vowing to hold whoever did it responsible, they shrugged it off and tried to blame it on the McCain camp. The fact that the flags were abandoned and thrown in the trash didn’t bother them. What did bother them was that they were found out, and the McCain camp was able to benefit from their screw-up. The response from Team Obama is more telling than the actual callous treatment of the flags.

Democrats howl and scream that we should never, ever question their patriotism. But it’s hard not to when the only time the Democrats ever actually show any patriotism is when they’re expected to. Once the lights are dimmed and they think no one’s listening, they abandon that facade. It feeds into the perception that many Americans have that Democrats are only patriotic when it’s beneficial to them, not because they truly do love their country. There’s a reason most Americans associate love of country with the GOP. And this incident doesn’t really help assuage this perfecption, does it? And especially not when the Obama campaign can’t seem to find any outrage over the actual treatment of the flags.

For what it’s worth, here is how you properly dispose of an American flag.