Personally, I'm not big on flags.  I see them as emblems of nations and empires and dynasties - amongst the most ephemeral of constructs.  So it's not so much the "disrespect" that bothers me, but rather the immeasurable hypocrasy of it all.

Title: Self Service Richard Pombo, his wife Annette and Richie Jr. celebrate Pombo's re-election to a second term in Congress and the Republican takeover of the House in 1994.  Back in 1992, he ran on the promise that he would term-limit himself at 6 two-year terms.  This year he's running for an eighth term. (Photo from Tracy Press)
(larger version)

First, let's visit the court case that changed it all, thanks to one of the bigger self-promoters of the 1960s, Abbie Hoffman.   From NY Times review of Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel by Marty Jezer:

As "Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel" makes clear, he was an original clown, a wise guy, an outlaw fantasist, a chutzpah artist. He was also a manic-depressive who rode his desperate cycle all the way down, dying of an overdose of pills washed down with alcohol on April 12, 1989.
...
The means was that theater of garish banality, television. A reader of Marshall McLuhan and Antonin Artaud, Hoffman wrote to peace activists: "I think we should watch more TV than read, listen to music more than lectures." He re-created himself as a purveyor of radical shtick, and produced media stunts -- throwing dollar bills onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, wearing a flag shirt -- that had the  paparazzi crying out for more. Imagining the United States to be flush with revolutionary possibilities, he was a chief impresario of the ill-fated Yippie Festival of Life in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention of 1968, which led to the trials of the Chicago Eight and a meteoric career for Hoffman as a campus rabble-rouser, promoting what he called "revolution for the hell of it."

Paul Krassner wrote the following, which can be found in several places, including the Huffington Post regarding the annual Rolling Thunder event in DC:

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General Richard Myers, joined the parade, which rumbled toward the national mall for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam War Memorial. He was wearing a shirt emblazoned with the American flag.

What would Abbie Hoffman have had to say about that spectacle?

In October 1968, [Hoffman] was arrested in Washington for wearing a shirt that resembled the design of an American flag. Authorities at the maximum security penitentiary did their worst to harass and humiliate him. They gave him a preventive de-lousing. They took a blood sample against his will, without affording him the sterile courtesy of a disposable syringe.

Two months later, Abbie was hospitalized in New York City for serum hepatitis.
...
When the judge declared him guilty, Abbie uttered the immortal words, "I only regret that I have but one shirt to give for my country."

Here's that famous arrest:

And here's how much things have changed - Congressman Joe Barton (TX-06) with some historical re-enactment guys:

The National Flag Foundation's website carries an opening greeting from George W. Bush:

Showing respect for the flag shows reverence for American ideals.

For all the many things I don't like about George W. Bush, I can't recall any evidence that he's disrespected the flag.  Our country, its people, the Congress, the courts, the Constitution, laws, treaties, the United Nations - he conducts himself as if he's spitting on every last one of them.  But I've never seen him be crass with an actual, physical flag.  So, maybe in this picture, he's suggesting proper flag etiquette to this motorcycle veteran from the same Rolling Thunder event as retired General Myers above?  Because, technically speaking, the man shouldn't be sporting a flag attached to his leather vest.

NPR covered the Abbie Hoffman/Richard Myers story too, and their website also lists provisions of the Flag Code, overturned in whole or in part by the Hoffman case.  But, you'd think these people who want to amend the Constitution to protect the flag would exhibit behavior something like what's in the Flag Code.  You'd be wrong.  (The provisions below have had their order rearranged.)

• The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.
  
• The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
  
• The flag should not be draped over the hood, top, sides, or back of a vehicle or of a railroad train or a boat.  When the flag is displayed on a motor car, the staff should be fixed firmly to the chassis or clamped to the right fender.
  

  
  Speaking of Congressman Barton, isn't that a flag laying across the trunk of that car?

• The decals or paintings on a vehicle would also be placed so that the union on the driver's side of the vehicle would be to the viewer's left while the union on the passenger side of the vehicle would be to the viewer's right.
  

  
  Passenger side, stars to the right?  Whoops!  Oh well, Katherine Harris lives in her own little universe for everything else, too.  Tell me something I don't know...

• The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.
  

  
  Maybe this is what Duncan Hunter (CA-52), chairman of House Armed Services Committee, had in mind when he stuck this flag in his pocket.  It's not a lapel pin, certainly, but it is on his left side.

• The flag should never be used for any advertising purpose. It should not be embroidered, printed or otherwise impressed on such articles as cushions, handkerchiefs, napkins, boxes, or anything intended to be discarded after temporary use.
  

  
  I'm guessing bandanas would be covered by this provision, too.  Here's Sue Myrick (NC-09), who has PAC-sponsored birthday parties, with her flag bandana.

• The flag should never be displayed with the union [stars] down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
  

  
  It's hard to see "dire distress" in this associate of Rep. Myrick.

• The flag should not be used as part of a costume or athletic uniform, except that a flag patch may be used on the uniform of military personnel, fireman, policeman and members of patriotic organizations.
  

  
  Here we have Mike Pence (2nd from right) with some admirers observing Veteran's Day.  Pence (IN-06) is hyper-pious, and chairs the hard right Republican Study Committee.

  
  John Peterson (PA-05) is a member of Pombo's Resources Committee, and served as public spokesman for the latest attempt to send the offshore oil & gas drilling ban to Davey Jones's locker.  He's got one of those ties, too.

  
  The Governator's marginally classier than these other yahoos, but falls short of respecting the flag by the traditional measure

• The flag should never be used for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
  
• When the flag is lowered, no part of it should touch the ground or any other object; it should be received by waiting hands and arms. To store the flag it should be folded neatly and ceremoniously.
  

  
  Sen. George Allen (VA) apparently missed this part, and stuck his little flag in his pocket, so he could have his hands free for other purposes

  
  The trouble with those little "stage prop" flags that get handed out to crowds at events is that they're essentially disposable, and hard to treat with the respect these same people are trying to amend the constitution to enforce.  Chris Shays (back row) has pulled the old pocket trick, and the guy next to Ahnold seems to be fidgeting with his flag.

• The U. S. flag should form a distinctive feature at the ceremony of unveiling a statue or monument, but should never be used as the covering for the statue or monument.
  

  
  Aside from the problems this flag misadventure caused to the US's reputation in the world at large, it turns out also to have been an instance of disrespect for our flag, as well.

• The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way.
  

  
  I'm thinking that a chef's hat is easily soiled, both from the inside and the outside.  The chef's sidekick is Rep. Gil Gulknecht (MN-02).

  
  I recall an old television commercial for laundry stuff about "ring around the collar".  Rep. Gulknecht seems to have similar values on this score as his pal from the previous picture.

  
  Then there's Jean Schmidt.  You remember her?  She called out Jack Murtha on the House floor, calling him a coward.  Of all things.  I've never seen a picture of her with her hair down - always she looks severe and Puritanical with her pulled-back hair.  When she pulls it back, she ties it with something - as it happens, sometimes those somethings are flag-motifed.  You'd think, for St. Patrick's Day, she'd go with green.

• The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery.
  

  
  Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX-Sen), despite her general sense of formal decorum, seems to have missed this one.

• The U. S. flag should never have placed upon it, or on any part of it, or attached to it, any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture or drawing of any nature.
  
• The flag should not be used for any decoration in general. Bunting of blue, white and red stripes is available for these purposes. The blue stripe of the bunting should be on the top.
  

  
  If I hadn't found this one on Hutchison's website, captioned that it's her and Ben Nighthorse-Campbell, I'd never have believed it.

I think the painted-on flag on the then-Senator from Colorado's bike is suspect.  The answer to all this flag vulgarity is not for "us" to take it back.  At least not to abuse and exploit it like the Republicans do.  The flag deserves more respect than it's been getting, and this diary should show where that disrespect's really coming from.

The Republicans have power, and have been doing horrible things with it.  And it's gotta end!  When that finally happens, it won't be a day too soon.  Real tigers, but paper tigers, too.  Human - as full of foibles and ridiculousness as anyone else.  Feet of clay.

But at some point, everybody deserves to have some fun.  That goes for the crowd here, too.  Go enjoy some barbecue or fireworks or something.  So have some fun, then back to work!   Much to be done in the coming weeks and months.