Funny thing, this recession, it even makes socialists compromise their values. Case in point, Hugo Chavez is now allowing Western oil companies, such as Chevron and Shell to bid on oil contracts. Apparently the nationalized oil company in Venezuela is no longer enough to pay the bills, in the face of declining oil prices, but Chavez looks at this as "losing a battle to win the war." Now, I find his new found dependence on the West highly comical, as even though America remains firmly reliant on oil, especially foreign oil, the Obama administration seems quite committed to breaking said reliance.

At his confirmation hearings Tuesday, Secretary of Energy-designate Dr. Steven Chu stated his commitment to nuclear energy, clean coal and alternative fuels. The debate about the safety of nuclear energy, or the very existence of clean coal is highly relevant, but the fact that a high-level appointee seems committed to actual change in energy policy is very promising. Chu even goes as far as to suggest recycling of spent nuclear material as a possible renewable fuel source. He said “We will work very hard to bring up technologies as quickly as possible, but I do think the best thing we can do is work on energy efficiency…that remains lowest-hanging fruit at this time.” Quite creative to say the least, not to mention how potentially damaging this is to a very antagonistic, anti-American regime, such as Venezuela.


On an unrelated political note, there are a handful of recent articles relating to the future of the Republican Party, or lack thereof, that I found particularly interesting. In a WSJ article, former GOP chairman Haley Barbour suggests that the Republican Party must rebuild from the bottom up. He suggests that the GOP build itself up from strong local- and state-level organizations, and get back to its roots as a small-government, tax cutting, cost-reducing party; the GOP of Reagan, while simultaneously catching up to the Democrats in the areas of Internet fundraising and grassroots infrastructure support. While this is clearly a strong idea, there is little to suggest that this is probable, or even possible in the next eight years.

In order to get more mainstream, the GOP must stop fracturing itself at every turn. As the article points out, moderate conservatives in the Northeast are particularly important to this process, but are precisely the type of conservatives that the GOP rejects on a regular basis. They are "too liberal" for the Republicans to tolerate, and highlight the main flaw in the party, the fact that it is actually two different parties, a fiscally conservative party, and a socially conservative party. It would be advantageous to reconcile these two factions, but it will be increasingly difficult, especially when faced with a bevy of young, likable Democratic candidates waiting in the wings.

It would also be advantageous for the GOP if they could get their house in order, and fast. Now, while the plan is sound, no one has apparently informed the state level Republicans. In Tennessee, the GOP regained a majority in House and Senate simultaneously for the first time since Reconstruction. While this is good news, the newly elected Speaker of the House gained his position only by making a deal with Democrats to get elected (the full body elects the Speaker, not just the controlling party). This deal went against a pledge every Republican representative made to vote for another rep for Speaker. Now, the control of the House is unchanged, but how powerful can the Tennessee GOP be if they can't even control a lowly state representative?

In the above WSJ article, it is pointed out that politicians like Sarah Palin are essential to the rebirth of the GOP. This must be music to Democratic ears, well, mine anyway. For whatever reason, Palin continues her crusade against the media and their supposed unfair practices. While she certainly got more than her fair share of attention during the campaign, she was a novelty, and did little to either improve her standing, or help herself look better at any point. The only action she could take was to blame others and name call in the aftermath of a drubbing at the polls. She is precisely the kind of Republican that the GOP does not need; divisive, anti-media and loosely associated with the truth. To be frank, she's my favorite Republican. She can't help but to put her foot in her mouth at every turn, all for the sake of staying in the news and attempting to maintain political legitimacy. I don't believe that the GOP can move on with her in the picture and I also believe that many in the Republican Party know that, but can't stop her from damaging the party's standing further. Good luck to the GOP in figuring out their own mess, but it seems to me that their hole gets deeper by the day.

P.S.- I'll not be discussing Bush's speech tonight, that aired as I was typing this post. It was too far detached from reality to merit a post. Sorry to anyone who was interested. I'll liveblog the Inauguration to make up for it.