0 - 2 (UPDATED)

(UPDATE #1):
… and the hits, they just keep coming.

As if breaking out of the starting blocks at a full mosey wasn’t bad enough with respect to supporting the protesters in Iran over the sham of an election in that country, the Administration has the temerity to call the removal of Manuel Zelaya as the President of Honduras “not legal”. Now, it’s in for a dime, in for a dollar as we double-down on our foolishness by co-sponsoring legislation in the U.N. supporting Zelaya.

The U.S. co-sponsored a successful U.N. resolution supporting Honduras's ousted leader Tuesday as Republicans began to speak out against the Obama administration's condemnation of the overthrow.

But wait… it gets even better. Apparently, Zelaya may be going to the White House to meet with the One.

"I believe, if he — if he does come either today or tomorrow, that he will likely meet with officials from the State Department, some of whom, as I said, have been in contact," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in Tuesday's briefing, repeating this when pressed by a reporter about whether Zelaya would meet with Obama.

Again, what was all that about not wanting to appear to be meddling?

For their part, the Hondurans remain defiant, claiming that Zelaya will be arrested if he returns and unless he is at the head of a conquering foreign army, he will not be re-instated as President.

(Honey, where’s my Honduran national soccer team jersey? I’m wearing it to work tomorrow).

We were discussing this situation the other night with B-Daddy and we agreed that if this charade being put on by the White House was just to leverage Hugo Chavez of Venezuela then it represents the most craven and cowardly display of Realpolitik we have seen this side of Henry Kissinger.

(here endeth the update)




Holy smokes. Is there a foreign uprising that this administration will be able to get right? It was, charitably speaking, too little, too late with respect to the Iranian street uprisings as that one has now been tallyed in the books.

Next chance for some liberty and freedom rhetoric from the most powerful nation on the planet is Honduras.

It seems that the leftist President down there, Mel Zelaya, wanted to extend his stay in office longer than what the Honduran constitution allows. Zelaya, facing a term limit would have to vacate the office in January after a nation-wide vote in November. In order to get around this nettlesome constitutional detail, Mr. Zelaya called for a voter referendum to do away with the term limit.

While constitutional re-writes are legal, it’s the Honduran Congress and not the President that can allow for this and that is why the Honduran Supreme Court found Zelaya’s actions illegal. After some Nixon-like Saturday night massacre firings, the Supreme Court ordered the military to remove Zelaya from office. Zelaya is now in exile in Costa Rica.

Now, these things tend to be pretty complicated and there never seems to be any hard and fast, right and wrong answers but if the fact that Zelaya had essentially become persona non grata with Congress, the Supreme Court, the electoral tribunal, the attorney general, the Catholic Church and even his own political party, combined with the reality that Zelaya has the support of Hugo Chavez, who has threatened military intervention, and Raul Castro should put a nice neat bow on things with respect to who’s wearing the black and white hats.

So what’s the U.S. response to all this?

President Barack Obama says the weekend ouster of Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya was a "not legal" coup and that he remains the country's president.

Obama spoke to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday after meetings with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Obama said he wanted to be very clear that President Zelaya is the democratically elected president.

Obama pledged the U.S. to "stand on the side of democracy" and to work with other nations and international entities to resolve the matter peacefully.

Wonderful. Given the known facts, it would appear that standing “on the side of democracy” would be giving support for his ouster and support for the elections in November that the Honduran military, Congress, and interim President (a member of Zelaya’s own party) say they have every intention in carrying out.

Zelaya’s efforts to establish a Chavez style President-for-life dictatorship have been thwarted (for now) and we can’t get behind it. Again, simply wonderful.

And dig this:

The Obama administration and members of the Organization of American States had worked for weeks to try to avert any moves to overthrow President Zelaya, said senior U.S. officials. Washington's ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens, sought to facilitate a dialogue between the president's office, the Honduran parliament and the military.

The efforts accelerated over the weekend, as Washington grew increasingly alarmed. "The players decided, in the end, not to listen to our message," said one U.S. official involved in the diplomacy. On Sunday, the U.S. embassy here tried repeatedly to contact the Honduran military directly, but was rebuffed. Washington called the removal of President Zelaya a coup and said it wouldn't recognize any other leader.

What was that again about not wanting to appear to be meddling in other countrys' affairs?

Another opportunity to stand on the side of freedom and liberty and another opportunity squandered.