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Crossposted at Daily Kos
With all the uproar over Republican gloating over American failures, this bit of news has been almost totally overlooked, but it trumps any posturing over the Olympics by a long shot.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has announced that he will be visiting Honduras today to meet with the de facto regime of acting Honduran President Roberto Micheletti in sheer defiance of the position taken by the US government and (the) international community . . .
Bold added by diarist
Senator DeMint (R-SC) has been revealed as a member of the C-Street Family, a fundamentalist Christian group that admires Hitler and believes in the Supremacy of a Free Market supporting Jesus, and has just violated the Logan Act, a law that states that ONLY unauthorized citizens are forbidden from negotiating with foreign Governments. As of now, DeMint is acting against American interests.
And that makes him a traitor.
More below the fold
Country first? Try Corporation first, or, sometimes Cult first.
Not a single nation has recognized Micheletti’s government, but Washington Note’s Steve Clemons explains that DeMint is intent on taking Honduran matters into his own hands:
Jim DeMint is acting on behalf of, in cahoots with, and against the foreign policy of the United States of America in encouraging post-coup Honduran government officials defy the United States. He is encouraging a political leadership which has no legitimacy and which not recognized by other democracies in the region – while the ousted President makes cell phone UN General Assembly statements from a couch-bed in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.
Senator DeMint has said that failing to bring health care reform would be President Obama’s “Waterloo”, and has appeared as a guest speaker at several tea parties, including the wingnuts extravaganza in Washington D.C. Apparently, while protesting fascism in Government, Fox News and the ocnservative movement has no problem having actual fascists state their case for them.
But, back to that bit about Sen. DeMint betraying America.
Well, good thing for Americans, that sort of thing is against the law.
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.”
Further evidence to why the role of setting foreign policy should be left to the Executive branch and only the Executive branch can be found here, in the 1936 Supreme Court ruling on United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. when President Washington was cited as saying . . .
Secrecy in respect of information gathered by them may be highly necessary, and the premature disclosure of it productive of harmful results. Indeed, so clearly is this true that the first President refused to accede to a request to lay before the House of Representatives the instructions, correspondence and documents relating to the negotiation of the Jay Treaty — a refusal the wisdom of which was recognized by the House itself, and has never since been doubted. In his reply to the request, President Washington said:
The nature of foreign negotiations requires caution, and their success must often depend on secrecy, and even when brought to a conclusion, a full disclosure of all the measures, demands, or eventual concessions which may have been proposed or contemplated would be extremely [p321] impolitic, for this might have a pernicious influence on future negotiations or produce immediate inconveniences, perhaps danger and mischief, in relation to other powers. The necessity of such caution and secrecy was one cogent reason for vesting the power of making treaties in the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, the principle on which that body was formed confining it to a small number of members. To admit, then, a right in the House of Representatives to demand and to have as a matter of course all the papers respecting a negotiation with a foreign power would be to establish a dangerous precedent.
Remember when Conservatives lost their shit when Speaker Pelosi traveled to Syria a few years ago? Why haven’t we heard about this then?
So why doesn’t Sen. DeMint get called out in the media for this betrayal of national interests? Or, better yet, why hasn’t DeMint or his Family counterparts been called out for their role in a anti-democracy, free market supporting Christofascist cult?
Maybe it is because our for-profit corporate media is pro-free market, or even pro christofascist cults? I truly do not know, and only speculate here, but I digress, for this is a matter for a different, and much longer diary.
Nevertheless, Senator DeMint has crossed a line here, actively undermining the US Presidency and US Policy in front of a foreign nation, let alone one that is illegitamate and at odds with the principles of Democracy. As thinkprogress.org reports, Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates, the firm hired to improve the Micheletti regime’s image in D.C. might have convinced DeMint to speak on behalf of pro-Micheletti interests in Washington, but they have violated their own Honduran constitution and have yet to restore it. Sadly, I think that is the last of DeMint’s concerns, christofascist that he is. Meanwhile Democratically elected Honduran President Zulaya remains in limbo, not that Democracy matters to the Republican party or the Family. The see it as a tool whereby they are given power, not something to defend or uphold.
Senator John Kerry blocked DeMint’s first attempt to seek approval for his trip, so DeMint took his bid to the State Department, according to reporting done by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC’s Countdown. DeMint then played “ask mom when dad says no” and requested permissiong from the still Cheney dominated Department of Justice, where his request was granted. The trick is, the DoJ did not grant DeMint’s request to undermine US policy, it just gave him permission to travel there. Undermining a Democratic President is just something DeMint does for free.
The question of whether DeMint is acting on behalf of his C-Street Family cult interests has yet to be proven, but should not be doubted. DeMint has repeatedly compared modern America to Ahmedinejad’s Iran and Soviet Russia, but fails to mention that his own vision for America resembles Communist China + Jesus + free market Corporatism, which, somehow, is what he must believe is what the founding fathers and the Son of God really intended all along.
Though DeMint’s motives can be questioned, his actions are clearly illegal. DeMint is clearly in violation of the Logan Act, and should be investigated and prosecuted for his crimes. Whether our gutless, corrupt Senate or it’s feeble, for show ethics committee is capable of taking any action is beyond my guess, but if I were a betting man I wouldn’t put any shoe money on that one.
And that strikes at the core of the Democratic parties problem. When do they fight back, if ever? When do they go on the offensive, aside from Rep. Alan Grayson? It is one thing to bluster or make up charges, it is another thing when your political opponents have screwed up or broken the law and you do not seize on that opportunity. There is a point when spineless is just an excuse for throwing the game, and with C-Street and Corporatists entrenched in both parties, it makes the two party system look like a form of kabuki where the game is fixed and Democracy is just for show.
Will Sen. DeMint be hled accountable for breaking the law? We all know what would happen if it were a Democratic Senator during a Republican Administration.
The question I ask is this, at what point are the Democrats not just spineless, but letting Republicans getting away with crimes on purpose?
Maybe DeMint’s violation of the Logan act will prove me wrong and the Democrats in the Senate will put his feet to the fire for it. I highly doubt it. More likely, DeMint will make a bunch of Amendments next week from the Senate floor that will undermine Helath Care Reform, and idiot Democrats will vote for it too.
More proof that Democracy works, though for who is another question all together.
On a day when Republicans cheered America’s failure this one takes the cake. Not only are Republicans “Hoping He Fails”, they hope WE fail, all of America, so they can be the ones to save it for their Corporate puppet masters and C-Street brethren. Nothing could be more UnAmerican, and the only thing that could possibly make it worse is if it was an actual fascist who did it.
Except it was.
Country first, my ass
Also crossposted at The Progressive Electorate.com
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George Wahington called actions like DeMint’s “A Dangerous Precedent”.
My question is, will he pay for it?
he’ll pay for it. If anything the right wing corporate media will praise him and further undermine Obama.
is aligned with globalist organizations. Are they in violation of the Logan Act.
Nixon, Kissinger, Reagan, Bush Sr., North, Bush Jr., Cheney, Libby, and the rest of the subhuman filth who betrayed our country over the decades were never punished for their crimes. Why expect some right-wing senator to be?
Let’s just assume that DeMint is in violation of the Logan Act even if the trip to Tegucigalps (or is it San Pedro Sula) is ultimately paid for by the US, which now appears to be the case.
Why didn’t Kerry’s fight with DeMint about this, in which funding was initially cut off, and was then restored, discuss the Logan Act and acting in opposition to US foreign policy? Try, e.g., this WaPo article.
Why? I suspect– no, I cannot prove it– it’s because tacitly the US government is fine with the golpistas and Micheletti and running out the clock to the November Honduras election and having an election even if the coup is still in power and then saying, “Oh well, it is now all moot, let’s move along.”
If that’s the case, DeMint’s trip to “shore up” the presently isolated golpistas isn’t contradicting US policy, it’s really enacting it.
I thought the Logan Act argument went too far when I heard in on Maddow last week but I wasn’t sure why. I suspect it’s because the US govt is paying for it and because it’s NOT really in contradiction to actual US policy. If it were, don’t you think somebody in the Govt would by now have called DeMint out about this??
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. . . in order to choose a committee to draft a sternly worded letter. But not too stern: they don’t want to alienate any moderate Democrats of Independents.
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