Neither side of the past summer's Honduran military coup covered itself with glory — and the same went for outsiders messing in it: Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chávez, sponsor of deposed President Manuel Zelaya's return to the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, on Zelaya's side, and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, who used the turmoil in Honduras as an excuse to delay confirmation of Obama-administration appointments on the Latin American scene, on the other.

Today, DeMint looks like a 1950s-era norteamericano meddler, while Chávez comes off as a would-be Fidel Castro from that same faraway time — while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton whisks her hands over what looks like a diplomatic job well done.

Zelaya, it appears, will finish his presidential term — roughly three more months — if his country's congress approves. But he won't succeed himself, which he'd hoped to do via plebiscite changing the country's constitution. That's what got him in trouble, and out of office. He's agreed to lead a "government of reconciliation" dedicated to a smooth transition.

Neither candidate in the Nov. 29 election is beholden to Zelaya, so prospects are good for democratic continuity.

Until the new president takes office, the military, which rousted the president from his palace in his pajamas and flew him to Costa Rica, has agreed to subservience to the country's supreme court. It was the Honduran high court's decision — that Zelaya's pre-election election on presidential terms was unconstitutional — which emboldened the brass to stage the coup; bloodless until Zelaya, with Chávez' help, made a comic-opera return to his country that triggered bloodshed. A dozen have died; for them and their families, not such a comedy.

Zelaya thinks he has the congressional votes it will take to restore him to office — and even his opponents should see the potential for restored peace in putting up with him for such a short time.

The Organization of American States, all of whose members condemned the golpe de estado, must assert itself as election observer; fraud allegations are likely to arise whoever wins. On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis was named to an OAS commission keeping its eye on Honduras' return to democracy.

In all, a sensible, and relatively peaceful, resolution of a banana-republic crisis rarely seen in recent years. The 600 or so U.S. troops stationed in Honduras at Palmerola, whom some on Capitol Hill would like to have seen actively supporting the replacement government, remained on their international drug-war duties, questionable as those efforts might be.

Staying Washington's hand militarily was only one of many good decisions by President Barack Obama and Secretary Clinton. Working through the OAS and consulting with our Latin American neighbors was another. Much as it might hurt conservative opponents to do so, they should applaud the administration's calm handling of a potentially volatile situation.