Was Republican Party chairman Haley Barbour's four-line press release equivalent to then Democratic Party head Ron Brown's flying the flag at half staff over party headquarters and attending services when his counterpart, Lee Atwater, died young of a brain tumor?
He then embarrassed his own party's new figurehead leader, Mathias Reichhold, by appointing extremists to key posts in the party and by flying off to Baghdad.
But his party officials have refused to let go of the man who has kept the party's flag flying high, in one of the only three Indian states where the left has a strong presence.
The Lagan Valley MLA Basil McCrea is due to face an internal disciplinary hearing for publicly criticising his party's stance over flying the union flag at Belfast City Hall.
The Alliance Party MP said the issue of the flying of the union flag at Belfast City Hall should have been addressed long ago.
And, you know, right now McCain's flying all of his conservative flags to try and woo the party base.
It's hard to say who the guilty party really is -- with the number of accusations flying around, it's possible everyone is at fault somehow.
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In a statement, the Alliance Party said it was standing firmly behind its policy of flying the union flag at council headquarters on designated days and was called for the Northern Ireland Executive to legislate for this as a requirement for all councils.
He confirmed that his party had written to Belfast City Council claiming that limiting the flying of the union flag was in breach of equality policies.
The Stormont working party group draft report refers to the development of proposals for flying flags - but it's evident from the square brackets and typefaces used that this suggestion remains disputed.
The SNP's Westminster leader, Angus Robertson, normally speaks for the party on defence issues - a contribution by either would set sparks flying.
Mr McCrea had condemned the actions of the party's three Belfast councillors in voting against the practice of flying the union flag only on designated days.
Alliance's support for a "designated days" flag flying policy at Belfast City Hall stirred controversy and led to attacks on the party's offices and a death threat against its only MP, Naomi Long.
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Speaking on BBC Northern Ireland's The View on Thursday evening, Nigel Dodds, DUP, said his party would be taking steps to table a motion in the Northern Ireland Assembly over flying flags at Stormont.
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Yet, even before the delegates had assembled for a party convention on February 20th to pick a permanent successor to Mr Clark, the dirt was flying again.
The flag will now flying on designated days, rather than 365 days a year, following a compromise motion proposed by the Alliance Party.
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This time the accusers are the beleaguered Alliance party, whose offices and councillors have come under attack over their decision to vote in favour of flying a Union flag on designated days only over Belfast City Hall.
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