Glenn Garvin on The Miami Herald has an interesting question for all of these new defenders of democracy in Honduras: Where were you last week when Manuel Zelaya was holding an illegal election and ignoring his country’s constitution?

As has been said on this blog a half-dozen times, Zelaya wasn’t removed by the military because some power-hungry general decided to ditch the democratically-elected leader of the country. The military removed Zelaya on a court order after the deposed leader went ahead with plans for a referendum in violation of a ruling by the Supreme Court. He ignored his country’s laws and democratic system, so he was removed peacefully and the next civilian in line — a member of his own political party — took his place.

And yet we didn’t hear from the White House and its colleagues in the World of Outrage until Honduras actually attempted to defend its democracy and people from a man acting like a dictator. They’ve been outraged by his court-ordered removal and replacement by a citizen, but had nothing to say regarding his blatant violation of the law and system of checks-and-balances.

Garvin writes:

For weeks, Zelaya — an erratic leftist who styles himself after his good pal Hugo Chávez of Venezuela — has been engaged in a naked and illegal power grab, trying to rewrite the Honduran constitution to allow him to run for reelection in November.

First Zelaya scheduled a national vote on a constitutional convention. After the Honduran supreme court ruled that only the country’s congress could call such an election, Zelaya ordered the army to help him stage it anyway. (It would be ”non-binding,” he said.) When the head of the armed forces, acting on orders from the supreme court, refused, Zelaya fired him, then led a mob to break into a military base where the ballots were stored.

His actions have been repudiated by the country’s supreme court, its congress, its attorney-general, its chief human-rights advocate, all its major churches, its main business association, his own political party (which recently began debating an inquiry into Zelaya’s sanity) and most Hondurans: Recent polls have shown his approval rating down below 30 percent.

In fact, about the only people who didn’t condemn Zelaya’s political gangsterism were the foreign leaders and diplomats who now primly lecture Hondurans about the importance of constitutional law. They’re also strangely silent about the vicious stream of threats against Honduras spewing from Chávez since Zelaya was deposed…

The Honduran army clearly did not act on its own when it arrested Zelaya and sent him packing. The supreme court says the generals acted on its orders, and almost every Honduran politician of any note — regardless of party — has voiced approval.

Somehow every flagrant violation of law, not to mention undemocratic move, by Zelaya has been largely ignored by the same international community condemning Honduran officials for protecting their constitution and system of government. They only became interested in defending democracy in the democratic republic when the leftist leader was deposed.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez is threatening all-out war to place Zelaya back in control of Honduras. As far as I can tell, the United States remains silent about the threat. To be clear: Expressing support for a man acting as a dictator is okay with the Obama Administration, but don’t dare say something too supportive of the protesters seeking fair elections in Iran. That would be seen as meddling.