Jim Hightower

How about that messy, silk-stocking coup pulled off this summer by business elites in Honduras? They got their government allies to depose the elected president, Manuel Zelaya, deporting him at gunpoint and installing their own guy as the nation's unelected jefe.

The drama is still playing out, but the usurpers have proven to be inept, repressive, and all-around ugly. They've drawn scathing denunciations from every other Latin American country, as well as our own. So, the cabal is now taking steps to repair the situation.

Are they begging forgiveness and restoring democracy, you ask? Of course not! Instead, they've launched a lobbying campaign in our country, hoping to keep the Obama administration from helping Zelaya return to the presidency.

The coup-masters have already spent more than $400,000 on Washington lobbyists. Among those signed up is Lanny Davis, a long time confidant of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. To cover the Republican side, the Hondurans enlisted The Cormac Group of influence peddlers, headed by John Timmons, a former aide to Sen. John McCain.

In addition, the usurpers have rallied a small group of right-wing Republican congress critters to run a "Save the Coup" campaign. South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, who concedes that he is out to do whatever it takes to make Obama fail, is leader of this pack. DeMint flew to Honduras in October to hold hands with coup leaders and wipe their fevered brows. When he returned, DeMint went all goofy on Fox News, proclaiming Honduras America's "best friend in the hemisphere... but we are trying to strangle them."

Whew, senator, get a grip! It's not the country we're trying to strangle, but the elites there who grabbed power for themselves. Why should Republican officeholders, much less America, be supporting coups against democratically elected presidents?