Despite the fact that the guy with the Confederate flag was photographed and videoed right at the front of the demonstrations all day, and nobody said a word to him about raising the flag of slavery in front of the White House, where our first African American president lives with his family, and despite the fact that Republican stars Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin gave speeches, and despite the fact that it was also attended by the extreme right wing Oathkeepers militia, today on CNN’s The Lead Politico editor Mike Allen said he sees no reason why any of this should reflect badly on the GOP.

The presence (or omnipresence) of a Confederate flag at Sunday’s protest in Washington DC is being given the “one rotten apple” treatment by the mainstream media, despite the Tea Party-heavy crowd’s obvious comfort with the banner at every stop on the protest. On CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper Monday afternoon, host Jake Tapper discussed the incident with his panel, which Politico’s Mike Allen decided “does reflect badly, even though there’s no reason it should.”

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CNN contributor and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile denounced the incident as “incendiary,” adding that “for them to bring that flag at this moment and the kind of words they used, very inflammatory. It had no place.”

Republican strategist Kevin Madden called the flag “pure pageantry,” and said that “it should not, and I don’t think it will, deflect from the larger message that Republicans have on their differences over policy with the President and Democrats.”

“All that, and they’re just a dope,” Politico’s Mike Allen added. “That’s obviously going to undercut what they’re saying, and does reflect badly, even though there’s no reason it should.”

Tapper lamented that “If you look at pictures from that rally, you have all these very moving pictures of veterans, photographs of veterans.”