Lobbyist Lanny Davis Seeks a Rematch with Obama over Honduras Coup

Dear Mr. President:

Remember, during the 2008 presidential primaries, the constant screeching national media presence from lawyer-lobbyist Lanny Davis? Yeah, him. The guy who night after night went on every cable TV channel to scream that Obama wasn't electable, that Obama couldn't win swing states, that Obama couldn't win white voters, that Obama had to explain his position on race, that Obama couldn't answer the 3 a.m. phone call...

He's baaaack.

And now he's representing the Honduran coup d'etat.

Yup, one of those very same bottom-feeding lobbyists who you banned from your administration is now out to prove that you really are the "inexperienced" rube he said you were.

And (as your Spanish-speaking US citizen it is my duty to inform you) the way that much of Latin America sees it, your administration - and particularly your Secretary of State - are being successfully played by.. cough... cough... Lanny Davis!

Who can forget Lanny's January 17, 2008 "Open Letter" to you, asking: "What Exactly in the Clinton-Era Nineties Did You Not Like?"

Well, other than lobbyists wagging the dog of Washington (in general) and Lanny Davis (in particular), I'll bet that heavy-handed US policy over the previous 28 years (including the 1990s) toward Latin America didn't leave a good taste in your mouth either, Mr. President. It certainly didn't down here.

When Lanny Davis bellies up to the roulette wheel and shouts "bet on red" you know it's the hour to put all your chips down on black. The guy is a walking, talking piece of inverted litmus paper with a bow tie, like on February 28, 2008, when he lectured, "Recent Polling Data Shows Serious Concerns About Senator Obama's "Electability" over Senator McCain vs. Senator Clinton's."

Or when, on March 2, 2008, Lanny Davis claimed:

One in five white Democrats (20%) would defect to Senator McCain if Senator Obama were the nominee.

Mr. President, you won 85 percent of that group last November.

In that same tome, Lanny wrote:

When the phone rings in the middle of the night at the White House, isn't it valid for voters to ask whether Senator Obama tends towards indecisiveness, given his past record of ducking votes, voting "present," or saying "I don't know" when asked how he would have voted on the war -- all the while criticizing Senator Clinton's "judgment" for voting for the resolution at the time?

See what he's trying to do with the Honduras coup, Mr. President? Lanny Davis' Honduras gambit is an attempt to prove that he was right all along: that you are "indecisive," and that you'll "duck" your civic duty to put the hammer down on the coup through the tools at your immediate disposal: full-on economic sanctions and by unleashing your law enforcement agencies on the gang of money launderers, narco-traffickers, ex-Cuban terrorists and others that have conspired and acted to turn Honduras into the rebirth of the 1950s Batista project in Cuba: a veritable mobster-state and safe haven for all of them.

Who can forget (well, who wants to remember, if I don't remind?) Lanny's March 6, 2008 admonition: "Obama vs. Clinton on Electability III: Electoral Votes Math Cannot be Disputed."

Just like the "legality" of this military coup cannot be disputed, right?

Or his April 23, 2008 gem: "The Top Ten List of Undisputed Facts Showing Barack Obama's Weakness in the General Election Against John McCain," in which he claimed:

Barack Obama hasn't won a single major industrial state that historically constitute the key "battleground" states for both parties, i.e., the states in the last three or four presidential elections have switched back and forth between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.

Mr. President: Surely you remember that come last November, you won all the industrial and battleground states, every last one of them.

(In that column, Lanny even suggested you would lose Massachusetts, where you got 62 percent to McCain's 36.)

Let me remind you of the most important thing to know about Lanny Davis: He's always wrong.

But now, in 2009, here he is, causing an international scandal: his sudden mercenary presence on the scene is viewed by many throughout Latin America as proof positive that the putsch in Tegucigalpa is "Obama's coup," or, at very least, "Secretary Clinton's coup." It's not, you say? I've said that, too. But Lanny Davis is trying his darnedest to make you own it, and make me eat those words.

Just like most US citizens have a hard time understanding different democratic systems of government in other countries, people abroad think Washington has pretty weird form of democracy, too, with its lobbyists like Lanny Davis pushing and pulling government around by the nose ring.

When they see someone like Lanny Davis, such a notorious cheerleader for the political ambitions of your Secretary of State, so closely allied with her over so many years, now lobbying for a military coup, her every move is scrutinized through that lens. She's taking an even bigger hit, so far, than you are over this. But in the end this will fall on you.

Now, while you were understandably busy in Italy and the Vatican and Russia and Ghana, Mr. President, I don't know which member of your administration somehow sold you on the idea that mediation talks in Costa Rica led by Oscar Arias could solve this Honduras coup problem. I really don't, although I can guess.

I don't know if it was Secretary Clinton, or your Latin America advisor Dan Restrepo, or the semi-retired "freelancer" Jeffrey Davidow (himself in the US Embassy in Santiago de Chile in September of 1973, all messed up in that disgraceful and bloody military coup d'etat), but if those talks don't produce the restoration of Honduras' elected president by this weekend, they'll have already failed.

Except that they'll have succeeded in buying time for the Honduran coup regime, making an international laughing stock out of those that bet on them. Think it's embarrassing to be played by Lanny Davis? Just wait until they say you were played by Roberto Micheletti and his clown-shoe coup council... the reports of your administration's competence would - and should - take a mortal hit if that's how it goes.

Many folks all over the world - and in the United States - will then conclude that you got played by a bottom-feeding lobbyist, and by the gaggle of Clinton-era foreign policy appointees in your administration, who will have been seen as having pulled off a kind of coup d'etat in Washington against you: against your statements that "the coup was not legal" and that the legitimate president of Honduras must be returned to office.

That would be widely seen as real pendejo, as we say down south.

Honduras' elected and legitimate President Manuel Zelaya held a press conference this afternoon in next-door Nicaragua:

Ousted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya warned on Monday he will deem mediation talks over the country's political crisis "failed" unless he is reinstated at the next meeting, likely this weekend...

"We are giving an ultimatum to the coup regime, that at the latest in the next meeting this week in San Jose, Costa Rica, they should carry out the expressed (OAS and U.N.) resolutions (to reinstate me)," Zelaya told a news conference in Managua.

"If not, then this mediation will be considered to have failed," he added, wearing his trademark white cowboy hat.

Got that? One more week for those talks to do what they're supposed to do, or you'd better have a very big baseball bat ready immediately for the next act.

Nobody's asking you to send in the Marines. All you need to do is to zealously enforce the laws of your own country, where the coup plotters deposit so many of the dollars that they've looted from the majority of Hondurans, and where they and their family members need visas to go shop in Miami with all that dirty money. Their bluff is in a Prada bag. You play poker. Call it.

And Zelaya is right. Playing along with such talks with an illegitimate coup regime any longer than they've gone on already would be folly. Diplomacy is for dealing with legitimate governments, not for criminals and terrorists.

And, Mr. President, even if that story blows over in the news media, because Honduras is a relatively small country, you just know that if the Honduras coup succeeds in remaining in power that other military generals in other Latin American countries are going to take it as a green light to do the same. And when that happens, the next coup - in Bolivia, perhaps? El Salvador? Nicaragua? Or completing the circle from 1955, Guatemala, Señor Presidente? - will be known far and wide as "Obama's coup," because your administration will then be accurately perceived as having not lowered the boom - in all the economic, political and judicial ways that everybody knows you can and must do - on its predecessor.

Worse, they'll say you got beat by Lanny Davis.

They'll even say that kooky Lanny fellow was right about you in 2008.

Those are his chips on the card table.

Now show us yours.

Follow Al Giordano on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AlGiordano

Comments

[johnashman]

I've noticed that the "tolerant" on the left always personally and viciously attack their own if they in any way challenge the vertically aligned core belief system. If you don't accept the core of the liberal platform to a tolerable degree, then you must be immediately destroyed on a personal level. Forget debating the ideas or questioning the foundations of them. Just go direct to personal destruction so there is no one left to field the 'contaminating' ideas. Reminds me of Logan's Run sometimes. Run, Lanny, run!!!! Your former friends are out to get you now, don't go to Carousel!

[johnashman]

Please back up these claims -

"where the coup plotters deposit so many of the dollars that they've looted from the majority of Hondurans,"

That a), there was, in fact a coup, rather than a legal action. Please cite the Honduran constitution.

"Diplomacy is for dealing with legitimate governments, not for criminals and terrorists.

That b), the interim government is composed of "criminals and terrorists". Please cite evidence, arrest records, etc.

[johnashman]

Let me see if I get this 'logic' straight.

Lanny Davis isn't good at predicting the future. Therefore he is "always wrong". Since he is "always wrong", he is not capable of being right with respect to current or past events.

Let's see. Who else is bad at predicting the future? Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton. Joe Biden. Bad at predicting the economy, stimulus success, jobless rates, their own security policies once elected, his own political popularity even within their own party, etc, etc, etc.

Maybe we need to do the OPPOSITE of what our current government says since they seem to be getting everything so incredibly wrong and, like Lanny Davis, are so terribly bad at predicting the future.

[DemCentrist]

I like lani. he makes sense. Especially for those of us who understand Central America and what is really happening in their struggle against Chavez.

Show me a coup please.

[cplKlyde]

Oh Al you expect this moderate centerist status quo administration to come down on a far coup. You're so funny.

[truthglow]

How can ANYONE forget Lanny Davis, who was on TV night after night defending Bill Clinton over his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky, and the scandal that insued? Of course, he would not side with Obama on anything, since he is one of the biggest Clinton shills that ever existed!!! Bill Clinton's ego, it has been said, has not healed from Obama's win, and Hillary is not done yet. Davis has no interest in making Obama look good! The Clintons own him!!!!!

[democracy1]

The bulk of IRI’s programming in Honduras is concentrated on helping city governments better serve their citizens. Our program and record is very clear and transparent there. We encourage those who are interested to learn more about our governance programming at: http://www.iri.org/lac/cen_good_gov.asp. The other aspect to our program in Honduras seeks to help encourage political parties and civil society focus on substantive issues such as healthcare, roads, education and economic development. IRI stands by that work as well.

[Al Giordano - Huffpost Blogger]

I'll reply by pasting in my brief reply to an unidentified "IRI spokesperson" (it's pretty weird that the spokesperson for an organization chooses to post anonymously, by the way: doesn't really succeed when one is also claiming "transparency"!):

it seems to me your own provided link rebukes your claim that "IRI does not fund any groups in Honduras." I followed those links and found that it funds, for example, the foreign travels of La Paz mayor Danilo Cervantes, a member of the Nationalist Party of Honduras, one of the parties that back the coup d'etat. (It was the Nationalist Party candidate for president Porfirio Lobo Sosa, who ran against Zelaya in the last presidential election and will reportedly try again for that post this year.)

That constitutes support for a political party, whether the money is channeled through a municipal government controlled by it or not doesn't change that IRI funds (that is to say, US taxpayer funds) are bolstering the coup.

Perhaps the functionaries at IRI don't see it that way, but the people of Honduras and the world clearly will. Any further use by IRI to fund such projects should be prohibited by NED as part of the sanctions until the coup regime falls.

[DemCentrist]

I wish you had some idea of Central America besides your love of leftwing autocrats.­.........(­see Chavez)

What a joke.

[Robster]

This is a South American problem- lets call in the UN to solve it.

[Billy Hell]

How is this a South American problem when the finger prints and boot prints of the US are all over it, going back decades, let alone this current coup? Using private organizations to which millions of tax payer funds have been diverted, to do the dirty work doesn't change that. What you're suggesting takes no account of the years and billions upon billions of dollars the corporate sector has and is sucking out the country.

The reality is the people of Honduras are being deprived of the very resources on which they depend for a lively hood. There has to be a better and more equitable way for the US to do business around the globe.

The invasion of Iraq and the rationale behind it is precisely the same as in Honduras and countless other countries across the planet. Nobody who keeps themselves even moderately informed can still claim there was any other reason to occupy Iraq, other than for it's oil.

Consider the havoc and devastation of infrastructure and social services...the lives of millions of people have been ruined, hundreds of thousands killed, even more maimed and disabled and millions displaced and exiled into refuge status for years. Does that sound like it's just?

There has to be a better way of doing business than toppling regimes who won't give their resources away and installing despots happy to sell their people out. And make no mistake, this is exactly what the Honduran coup is all about.

[eddiesengola]

So what's up with the Clinton advisors and lobbyists hanging out with the coupsters? Obviously, it's a clear indication of Washington's support for the coup regime in Honduras, despite the rhetoric we heard last week "condemning the coup". The real actions show just the opposite: clear, undivided support for Micheletti and a definite rejection of President Zelaya's return to the presidency in Honduras.

Ratcliff's conditions for the negotiation -- approved by secretary of state Clinton -- included the following five main terms:

1. Zelaya can return to the presidency, but not to power. The presidency and the exercise of power are two different things.

2. Zelaya must not pursue any plans to reform the constitution or promote polls or referendums that give voice to the people.

3. Zelaya must distance himself substantially from President Chávez. "This is essential", they said.

4. Zelaya must share governance with the Congress and those in the coup regime until the elections in November.

5. Zelaya must give amnesty to all those involved in the coup.

Well, there you have it! Obama's first coup and Hillary's first use of "smart power" to achieve the ouster of a left-leaning president that was further opening the doors of Central America to Latin American integration and sovereignty. There is no doubt that this coup has been executed to cease the expansion of socialism and Latin American independence in the region.

http://links.org.au/node/1147

[sabocat]

Eva is translating the second half of the article with more specific info. on US complicity in the coup in Honduras. Should be posted soon.

See http://www.chavezcode.com/

[DemCentrist]

Thank God for smart pols in Washington!!

I tip my hat for Obama.

Somebody who actually knows what is happening with far left dictators in the hemisphere.

[TULLY1940]

The reason the world is where it is today is because of the last 1000 years of European, American, and Russian colonialism throughout the poorer peoples, and nations-- Everything that is being done now ( including foreign aid) is damage control to stop the 3rd world from rising and taking revenge: The Mid-East---China-- to some extent Africa, South America, etc. And most Americans are still in the dream-time when America saved the world from Hitler and Stalin--so they think the world should simply heed our clear? vision of the future, or by god desperately wish they did. How can we claim any superiority-- (coups, Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq, Afganistan, ect.) especially when America itself stopped regulating our own Corporate Crusaders; the result was Enron,Worldcom, Subprime mortgages, and Bernie Madoff!!! The G-8 are simply reaping what they have sown.

[tel8034]

Whining Lanny Davis couldn't even organize the PUMAs (his pet project) .............. Doesn't he know that he has NO CREDIBILITY WHATSOEVER?

[pomegrante]

wow,i thought lanny was holed up in a corner at the state dept. damn the bad dream is back.

[S1m0n]

It's the responsiblity of the Honduran people to secure their own freedom; that's what 'self-dete­rmination' and 'soveriegnty' both mean. It is not the president's obligation, and shouldn't be.

[guajiro]

yup, and you still can't walk without armed guards in Iraq, eh? Is that the kind of "self-dete­rmination" you gave the Iraqi people? Is that the "sovereignty" you respected there?

[RevBookburn]

Best article on the Honduran military coup so far. Obama seriously needs to read this at least twice and then grow a spine. Lanny Davis has coup blood on his hands. Forget the words of a tiny, vocal segment of teabaggers. It's time for action. Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta

[lbrty 2112]

Al, while I do disagree with your position, I do commend you for coming out to answer criticism on this story. It's a refreshing change of pace.