Sen Jim DeMint defies Sen Kerry, Obama admin.

[dgibby]

Dispite being admonished to refrain from travelling to Honduras, CNN's Rick Sanchez is reporting that Sen DeMint (R/SC) has defied the Obama administration's offical stance regarding the recent coup in that country, leading a congressional delegation on a "fact finding" trip in advance of upcoming elections.

DeMint has made his support for the de facto government well known, a position that is in direct conflict with official US policy.

Following is Sen DeMint's latest press release.

UPDATE: DeMint Will Lead Delegation to Honduras Today
U.S. Senator and Congressmen to meet with President Micheletti and Honduran election officials


October 2, 2009 - WASHINGTON, D.C - U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, and announced that he will lead a delegation of U.S. Congressmen to Honduras today. The group will include U.S. Representatives Aaron Schock (R-Illinois), Peter Roskam (R-Illinois), and Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado). They plan to meet with Honduran President Roberto Micheletti, members of the Honduran Supreme Court, election officials, and Honduran business and civic leaders.

Yesterday, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) attempted to block the delegations trip at the last minute, denying the necessary committee approval. However, late Thursday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) intervened and approved the trip to allow the Senator and Congressmen to assess the facts in Honduras.

demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Pr... - 35k

and this:





DeMint Statement on Honduras
“Americans should support the Honduran people and their legitimate leaders in their brave and heroic stand for freedom and the rule of law.”


July 2, 2009 - Greenville, SC - Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, made the following statement about the ongoing situation in Honduras.

"The people of Honduras have struggled too long to have their hard-won democracy stolen from them by a Chavez-style dictator. The Honduran Congress, the Honduran Supreme Court, and the Honduran military have acted in accordance to the Honduran constitution and the rule of law.

“For weeks leading to his arrest, Zelaya flouted the constitutional authority of the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court, and claimed for himself extra-constitutional control of his nation’s military and political institutions. Every institution from the Electoral Tribunal to the Supreme Court ruled that his actions were unjustified and illegal. Zelaya’s open defiance of democratic norms has set Honduras on a path toward violence, instability, and tyranny.

“I am hopeful that as President Obama grows in office, he will eventually turn away from despots like Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, and Zelaya, and give the United States’ full-throated support to the people of any country who are fighting for the same values we cherish and defend in America. The people fighting for freedom around the world, in Iran and Honduras, should never have to wonder which side America will choose between freedom and tyranny.

demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Pr... - 35k

(DeMint, along with other SC elected officials, has been making his mark on the national stage in recent months, much to the dismay of many of his constituents.)

[redqueen]

1. "much to the dismay of many of his constituents"

LOL

K&R

[HowHasItComeToThis]

28. PUT THE A H IN PRISON.... TREASON

[redqueen]

36. WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME? I AGREE WITH YOU!

[BlooInBloo]

39. LOUD NOISES!!!!

[Fresh_Start]

2. follow the money

who's paying and who's profiting from this

[flamingdem]

7. si! exactemundo nt

[dgibby]

8. My take on this is that he is positioning himself for a presidential run.

Now that Sanford is out of the way, DeMint (or DeMinted, as we call him here in SC), is trying to make as much news as possible as fast as possible. The fact that it is not good news except to his base doesn't seem to faze him. Of course, he might decide to run for governor, then prez, but he certainly does seem like he's on the move.

[Fresh_Start]

9. perhaps

but money is equally if not more likely.

[dgibby]

24. Here's what I found so far:

CAREER PROFILE (SINCE 1989)
Top Contributors
James W DeMint


Contributor Total Indivs PACs
Club for Growth $136,496 $129,600 $6,896
Scana Corp $78,725 $62,725 $16,000
Cancer Centers of the Carolinas $71,500 $71,500 $0
Nelson, Mullins et al $65,374 $47,874 $17,500
Edens & Avant $60,000 $60,000 $0
AT&T Inc $50,250 $14,750 $35,500
Wyche, Burgess et al $42,300 $42,300 $0
Fluor Corp $42,241 $24,741 $17,500
RE Phelon Co $41,242 $41,242 $0
Lockheed Martin $29,050 $23,050 $6,000
Babcock & Brown $28,125 $28,125 $0
Spartanburg Forest Products $26,100 $26,100 $0
National Assn of Health Underwriters $25,960 $0 $25,960
Bluegrass Cmte $25,000 $0 $25,000
Good Government for America $25,000 $0 $25,000
Wal-Mart Stores $25,000 $0 $25,000
Washington Group International $24,998 $5,000 $19,998
Haynsworth, Sinkler & Boyd $24,500 $24,500 $0
Koch Industries $24,000 $4,000 $20,000
United Parcel Service $23,250 $2,250 $21,000

http://www.opensecrets.org/

No info available about any money links to Honduras, but I'd be willing to bet you're right.

If he IS getting money to support them, then I'd think he'd be in some serious hot water.

[Fresh_Start]

29. The deposed leader was increasing wages

and attempting to prevent privatization

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/conn-hallinan/honduran-coup-the-us-conn_b_252836.html

[dgibby]

34. Sounds like he crossed the "economic hit men". n.t

[BlooInBloo]

40. Yah - because the road to the White House always goes through Honduras.

[starroute]

32. I'd suggest looking at his ties to the Family

Unfortunately, most of what turns up in googling is an article by Wayne Madsen -- who's occasionally right but never reliable. However, the DeMint trip suggests in this case Madsen may actually have a hold of something when he says the Family has long-standing Honduran connections.

At the least, I'd like to see it looking into by someone with a better track record.

[dgibby]

35. Jeff Sharlet would probably be the most reliable source on the Family

and any connections they have with Honduras.

I'm going to send this to Rachel. Maybe she can get more info.

[LostInAnomie]

3. Obama needs to crack down and show these fuckers...

... that their bullshit isn't going to fly.

[tularetom]

4. Pull his passport

Passports are issued by the State Dept. which already directed him not to make this trip after he declared his intent was to oppose US policy.

They would be entirely within their rights to request that he turn in his passport.

[dgibby]

13. I'd pull his passport and his security clearances,

then boot him off any committees he's on.

I think he's in violation of some rules/laws, but not sure which ones. Anybody know?

He's also a member of the "C" Street "Family", so, of course, the rules don't apply to him. No doubt he'll say he was just doing "missionary work" for them.

[karynnj]

45. Well he is only fairly at the SFRC hearings, which likely does not bother Kerry much

So, it is rather odd that he is suddenly so interested.

[flamingdem]

5. Neanderthals meet neanderthalitos nt

[thunder rising]

6. Chavez-style dictators that don't need secret death squads and military aimed inward to retain power

This argument always goes unchallenged ... go fig'ur

[MineralMan]

10. Senator Dimwit....

[ProSense]

11. Maybe violating the Logan Act

Republicans visit Honduras despite US coup policy

By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Four U.S. Republican lawmakers met with Honduras' interim president on Friday in a challenge to Washington's condemnation of the coup that brought him to power.

The brief, amicable visit with the leaders of the coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya highlights a divide in Washington, where the Obama administration is working to reinstate Zelaya but many conservatives side with the government installed after soldiers arrested the president in his pajamas and flew him into exile.

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, the leader of the delegation, said before the trip that even calling Zelaya's overthrow a coup is "ill-informed and baseless."

DeMint and three representatives — Aaron Schock and Peter Roskam of Illinois and Doug Lamborn of Colorado — smiled for photographs in a book-lined office of the stately presidential palace with interim President Roberto Micheletti.

link

DeMint Defiantly Leads GOP Delegation To Meet With Illegitimate Honduran Post-Coup Government

The Logan Act forbids “unauthorized citizens” from negotiating with foreign governments. In a 1936 Supreme Court ruling, Justice Sutherland wrote that “the President alone has the power” and “the Senate cannot intrude, and Congress itself is powerless to invade it.”

<…>

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) attempted to block approval of DeMint’s self-described “fact-finding trip,” citing the defiant role DeMint has taken in attempting to alter US policy on Honduras by brazenly blocking the confirmations of Arturo Valenzuela, Obama’s nominee to be assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, and Thomas A. Shannon Jr., the nominee to be ambassador to Brazil. However, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) interfered and appealed to the Defense Department to provide an airplane for DeMint and his delegation, which the Pentagon allowed. DeMint will be joined by US Reps. Aaron Schock (R-IL), Peter Roskam (R-IL), and Doug Lamborn (R-CO). Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) will be visiting Honduras on Monday. Ros-Lehtinen and the congressmen plan on meeting with Micheletti, members of the Honduran Supreme Court, election officials, and Honduran business and civic leaders. However, they are snubbing Zelaya who recently returned to Honduras and took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.

Perhaps the public relations firm Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates — which Micheletti’s regime hired to “bolster its image in Washington” — helped convince DeMint to overlook the fact that Micheletti has suspended constitutional guarantees to civil liberties, including freedom of assembly and freedom of the press. Meanwhile, the U.N. Human Rights Council has unanimously called for an immediate end to all human rights violations in Honduras on behalf of the de facto government.

more

[dgibby]

15. Thanks.

I knew he was violating something, but couldn't remember the name.

[karynnj]

49. Interesting that he is not even pretending to be even handed in his "fact finding".

In a way this is not surprising, the US, to one degree or another, has supported many right wing coups in the past, including notably the Contras. The School for Americas still exists - and I am proud that my middle daughter protested it last year along with a group of students from her MA college. In the 1980s, it was not just the Republicans that supported those policies - it was at least half of teh Democratic party.

While some here bashed Obama for not being as assertive as they would have liked, this is a major turning of US policies - changing a course we were on for more than 50 years. It would be naive to not expect pushback from the right. (You could tell that by looking at the comments of an oped Kerry wrote soon after the coup - when he took a stronger position than the administration.)

[WeDidIt]

12. He's gonna end up violating the Logan Act

§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments.

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.

1 Stat. 613, January 30, 1799, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953 (2004).

[dgibby]

16. Thanks. I couldn't remember the name of the Act. n/t

[thunder rising]

21. First we are looking forward and with this I'm sure looking the other away.

[Hippo_Tron]

26. That was a ridiculous claim when the Republicans said it about Pelosi going to Damascus...

And it remains ridiculous. The Logan Act was written at a time when the possibility of the State Department and the President being undermined by a third party was an actual concern. In the modern era the President is commander-in-chief of the world's mightiest military force and the leader of the largest economic power in the world. No government would ever seriously negotiate with anybody but the President or his representatives because such a person could make no guarantee of any substance.

DeMint is going to Hondouras to make an ass of himself and nothing more. To argue that he is illegally undermining US diplomatic efforts is to argue that he has more influence than he actually does.

[dmr]

33. Oh, I don't know. Seems like there's always something lurking in the shadows of our gov't.

The Republicans like to get 'involved' in things when they shouldn't.

Like undermining a sitting Democratic president ...

Take for instance the October surprise that came to fruition the afternoon of January 20, 1980.

[Hippo_Tron]

46. Find eveidence that DeMint is involved in any such activity and you might have a case

Merely going to Hondouras isn't against the law. The particular October surprise you speak of is a valid theory but was never proven. And even if it is true Reagan was a candidate for President with about a 50/50 shot of actually becoming President so it would make sense for them to negotiate him. DeMint is not President and he will never be President and thus nobody is going to negotiate with him.

[WeDidIt]

54. He's meeting with the coup leader of a government we refuse to recognize

as set foreign policy of this nation.

HE is encouraging that coup leader to continue to resist the United States in direct conflict with set United States foreign policy.

This is a direct and flagrant violation of the Logan act.

HE's doing it on purpose because if he gets away with this, the next step will be further and even more flagrant violations.

[karynnj]

50. "Make an a** of himself" He does that easily without leaving the country

He could save the cost and the carbon!

Here he is speaking on this on teh floor of the Senate - and yeah he is an a**.

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=9041336

[loudsue]

30. Jail his ass.

I'm so sick of this country's TWO legal systems: One for the powerful/rich, and one for the rest of us.

[Doctor_J]

14. Shouldn't he be arrested for treason/sedition when he tries to return?

:shrug:

[dgibby]

18. Nothing would make me happier.

He's probably down there getting instructions on how to take down the Obama administration.

In addition to being stone cold stupid, this man has serious issues with the fact that there's a black man in the White House, imo.

[EFerrari]

17. The Prime of Senator Jim DeMint!

What an idiot. lol

[SidneyCarton]

19. can we deny him reentry? (wishful thinking, I know)

[dgibby]

25. Reentry ?

To the US or this galaxy?

[quiet.american]

20. If anyone should know about supporting coups, it's Republicans. nt

[Thickasabrick]

22. Let him go...didn't Pelosi go to Syria on Bush's watch when everyone

told her not to get involved?

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

44. Deleted message

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[Thickasabrick]

53. Delete

[Hippo_Tron]

47. People don't seem to get this...

The freepers were screaming violation of the Logan Act when Pelosi went to Damascus two years ago. Now DeMint is doing it and DUers are screaming violation of the Logan Act.

[Thickasabrick]

52. I know.......when we have another puke in the whitehouse...and it

will happen, I don't want anybody stopping our congress critters from going where they need to go.

[WeDidIt]

55. You're comparing apples to giraffes

PElosi met with a government we recognized and did nothing in direct contravention of set foreign policy.

DeMint is meeting with a coup leader as head of a government we do not recognize and is urgin that coup leader to resist the set foreighn policy of the United States.

[Hippo_Tron]

57. The Bush administration cut off all diplomatic ties with Syria and recalled our ambassador

And they implemented a complete trade embargo. Sure they still recognized them as a sovereign nation, but in the eyes of the Bush Administration it was an illegitimate terrorist supporting regime and official policy was to undermine their government not to engage in diplomacy with them.

Pelosi conducted talks with a leader that the Bush Administration considered illegitimate against the wishes of the administration. That's no different than what DeMint is doing.

Nobody has ever been actually prosecuted under the Logan Act and I doubt anybody ever will.

[Are_grits_groceries]

23. DeMint is a loon.

The government has every right to do so. DeMint is probably going to convey good news from rich RW loons too.

I read his book, "Saving Freedom", and he truly believes he needs to lead a revolution. DeMint is worse than Sanford. He sees no place for government in practically anything. He even went off on Eisenhower for building the interstate highway system.

I'm sure there are others who sneak and do things. However, he is openly defying the government. Hillary needs to jerk a knot in him. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is going next week, and Connie Mack went in July.

[JBoy]

27. Cheney would have put a Dem doing the same thing on the no fly list.

[Hippo_Tron]

48. No, Pelosi went to Damascus against the wishes of the Bush Administration

And the "no-fly" list is for commercial airlines, not whatever military or government planes they fly on for the congressional missions.

[Sukie]

31. As a representative of our country

DeMint has just committed treason. He should be arrested and tried as a traitor.

[DBoon]

37. Hey, it's a legitimate fact finding mission

He's finding out how they engineer a right-wing military coup so he can do the same thing here, to "resolve the Obama problem"

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909290042

[dgibby]

38. Exactly! n/t.

[BlooInBloo]

41. $5 says he's got a Honduran Hottie down there.

[spanone]

42. once he leaves the country pull his fucking passport

[KatyMan]

58. At least put him on a no fly list,

you know, consorting with the enemy and all.

[dgibby]

51. Something else I found.

Meet Senator Jim DeMint, Honduran Coup Supporter and Apologist: Oh, He's Republican Too.


President Obama has decried it. The Organization of American States and countries throughout Latin America have condemned it. The European Union has protested loudly. The majority of world leaders have raised their voices in opposition, confirmed by a resolution just passed in the United Nations General Assembly. And yet, one prominent legislator on Capitol Hill has leapt to the defense of the new coup regime which took power in Honduras on Sunday. That politician is Republican South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint.

snip:

It’s hardly surprising that DeMint would come out for the military takeover in Honduras given that he’s been a long time booster of Central American free trade. In this sense, he shares the ideological views of newly installed Honduran President Roberto Micheletti, a former businessman and conservative politician who has supported the trade initiative.

snip:

Over the past five years DeMint has promoted his globalizing agenda, the same agenda shared by the likes of Roberto Micheletti and the Honduran elite which has just taken power in Tegucigalpa. In the days ahead it will be interesting to see whether his fellow Republican compatriots, also believers in free trade, will be so brazen as to come out for a government which brutally represses its people.

Nikolas Kozloff is the author of Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics and the Challenge to the U.S. (Palgrave, 2006) and Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave, 2008). Check out his Web site at http://senorchichero.blogspot.com

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/8900


Looks like DeMint and Micheletti like the same people. No doubt these people have very deep pockets.

[donheld]

56. DeMint should be jailed as soon as he lands back in the USA