Senator Jim DeMint Reports On Honduras
I saw Senator DeMint discussing his visit to Honduras on FOX last week. He has an editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal (via Hot Air) in which he verifies what all of us who were reading the facts and paying attention knew: there was no “coup”; Zelaya was a corrupt man whose efforts to retain power by changing the Honduran constitution were illegal while his removal from the presidency was legal and constitutional. Senator DeMint did mention some items that were new to me:
In a day packed with meetings, we met only one person in Honduras who opposed Mr. Zelaya’s ouster, who wishes his return, and who mystifyingly rejects the legitimacy of the November elections: U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens.
When I asked Ambassador Llorens why the U.S. government insists on labeling what appears to the entire country to be the constitutional removal of Mr. Zelaya a “coup,” he urged me to read the legal opinion drafted by the State Department’s top lawyer, Harold Koh. As it happens, I have asked to see Mr. Koh’s report before and since my trip, but all requests to publicly disclose it have been denied.
On the other hand, the only thorough examination of the facts to date—conducted by a senior analyst at the Law Library of Congress—confirms the legality and constitutionality of Mr. Zelaya’s ouster. (It’s on the Internet here .)
You probably remember the controversy surrounding Harold Koh. Hot Air links to acid commentary by Andy McCarthy at The Corner.
…As Ed Whelan and I pointed out when Koh was up for confirmation, the former Yale Law School dean is the nation’s leading transnationalist. He has zero respect for national constitutions (including ours), preferring a post-sovereign order in which international law profs, transnational organizations, and free-lancing judges will be our overlords. What is happening with Honduras is exactly what anyone who familiarized himself with Koh’s record would have predicted. Yet, he was confirmed by a 62-35 margin, with support from the usual GOP suspects: Lugar, Voinovich, Snowe, Collins, and Martinez.
Will these Republicans who helped foist Koh on us now join others demanding that President Transparency release Koh’s legal opinion on Honduras? (I won’t ask about the 19 Republican Senators who thought Holder would be a fabulous, non-political Attorney General …)
Senator DeMint challenges the Obama administration with a very pointed conclusion:
America’s Founding Fathers—like the framers of Honduras’s own constitution—believed strong institutions were necessary to defend freedom and democracy from the ambitions of would-be tyrants and dictators. Faced by Mr. Zelaya’s attempted usurpations, the institutions of Honduran democracy performed as designed, and as our own Founding Fathers would have hoped.
Hondurans are therefore left scratching their heads. They know why Hugo Chávez, Daniel Ortega and the Castro brothers oppose free elections and the removal of would-be dictators, but they can’t understand why the Obama administration does.
They’re not the only ones.
__________
H/T: Hot Air, Wall Street Journal, The Corner.
[1]
Honduras will hold a new election early next year, and by then Zelaya will be a distant memory.
Did you see Argentina pass a bill limiting free speech? They call it “democratizing” free speech. Meaning the 50% plus one can trample and wipe out the rights of the other 50%-1….
Look for that here, soon.
Something wicked this way comes….
[2]
rwy: “Honduras will hold a new election early next year, and by then Zelaya will be a distant memory.”
Actually the election is Noverber 29…a little over a month away. And OUR Ambassabor is NOT supporting it! Something wicked is already there…look for the Communist thugs to try and de-ligitimize the election, and for Obama to side with the thugs!
and as for Free Speech here being curtailed…THAT will be here very soon now I fear. It will have all kinds of different names:
- Hate Speech elimination
- Diversity
- “Calming the National Discourse”
- and some CRISIS! that requires a “temporary” suspension of the Internet and of assembly
Sooner or later…but I think sooner.
[3]
Oops, my bad on the election date.
For the Obama administration to actually try to subvert the election process and install someone who is not eligible to hold the office again, would be something else to behold.
I wonder what the domestic reaction would be among our electorate?
[4]
Nice post INC. Am glad to see your SN on BJG again!
Hondurans are therefore left scratching their heads. …as are most Americans who see this great divide between the Obama Administration and the Honduran government.
When did it become “American” to salute and support the “bad guys?”
No one gets this Presidency except the elites inside government calling the shots!
[5]
Thanks, Jan!
The continuing actions and rhetoric from the White House have been both ridiculous and outrageous. There is no way to justify putting Zelaya back in and using it as a threat not to recognize the Honduran elections.
[6]
Koh’s cover up on the legal analysis is also outrageous. I’m sure it would not bear the light of day and decent thinking critique, but would instigate a hue and cry if realized. That’s why it is under wraps. IMHO.
[7]
Thanks for highlighting this issue, it’s rather shocking to me most the Old Media and New media for that matter are largely ignoring this story. It’s one of the most telling FP moves dipchit has made and continues to make yet.
[8]
Here’s the Peace Dividend –
Not like we did not know it already. According to the same economist, there are now 6.3 Americans competing for every job out there. How times change. Now it is ’scrounging for every job that Americans can find.’
[9]
Tuscon Teas fill a local stadium.
HT: Instapundit.
[10]
Last rant of the day –
Another words the govt is in court advocating that the Telcos are an arm of the government!
Link.
[11]
INC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
[12]
LOLZZ
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/86520/
[13]
OT, hattip Powerline:
Aftenposten is the largest paper in Norway. A poll they conducted found that 62% of Aftenposten’s readers felt Obama did NOT deserve the prize. 37% voted yes.
And the Swede’s next door consider the whole thing more evidence of Norwegian stooopidity!
Oh, and this cartoon is AWESOME…
[14]
KH, I kind of expected the Old Media to ignore this while shilling for Obama. I agree that it’s been shocking the extent to which it’s been ignored by much of the New Media as Obama really revealed himself with his policy and reaction to the Hondurans.
It was good that DeMint and others went down to Honduras–it gave them added authority to speak.
Hey, JM!
[15]
Artist & JR–funny!!
[16]
DeMint is one of few Republicans in Congress with any courage. John Kerry tried to do everything in his power to stop this trip to Honduras.
[17]
Perhaps Demint should note Honduras is a “teachable moment”, and invite Obama to have a beer with himself and Micheletti.
[18]
yup, KH, ya gotta have a gimmick if you want to catch the eye of the Chosen One. Maybe he could tell our Dear Leader it’s a Nobel cause? A case of Noblesse Oblige?
[19]
John Hinderaker at PowerLine does a fine job of slicing and dicing the political decision of the Nobel committee.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/10/024672.php
It pretty much comes down to Obama’s apologies to the world as his main accomplishments.
Guess that’s about right.
[20]
Babalu Blog has this reminder (with a nice photo of Kerry!):
[21]
Ed Whelan at The Corner:
On Koh, he quotes Estrada as writing: