National: Ken Salazar

MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2009

A lot of news happened over the last three days. We’re going to get to it all. Fair warning, this is a big morning briefing, but it’s got everything you need to get going this Monday morning, the day before the Inaugural.
1. Nancy Pelosi’s Political Threat Could Legitimately Begin the Breakdown of the American Republic. And That’s No Exaggeration.

The true reason that the American Republic has endured, public bribing by the legislature or no, is because of a very simple rule: political defeats do not end the game. Nancy Pelosi could end the game.

In June 2008 amidst an energy crisis and the highest gas prices since the Carter years (not counting the few days after Katrina), President Bush an executive order banning new U.S. offshore drilling. Three months later, a federal moratorium on OCS drilling was allowed to expire by Congress for the first time since the Regan administration. A ban on shale oil was allowed to expire, as well.

Now, the Obama administration and the Democrat Congress, both of whom pay lip-service to making America more energy independent, are seriously considering once again legislating utter American dependence on foreign countries like Venzuela and Saudi Arabia.