The future of the Idaho GOP?

I have seen the future of the Idaho Republican party. His name is Brett Peterson, he's a 24-year-old student at BYU-Idaho, and he's in favor of more domestic oil and gas drilling. So much in favor of it that he showed up at the Democratic convention with a group of college Republicans who proceeded to drown out Nancy Pelosi's main energy speech with chants of "Drill here, drill now."

Brett says he ended up front and center in the well-viewed YouTube video of the incident. After watching it, I can't figure out which of the protesters he is, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He says that people have walked up to him at RNC-related receptions to congratulate him on his performance.

I suppose this is the point at which I should make a snide comment about Brett, and perhaps college Republicans in general. But you know what? Brett was a really nice guy. A little awkward, suffering from minor delusions of Youtube grandeur, but utterly sincere. He says he wants to "keep moving up and stay in politics my whole life."

When nice young guys like Brett are showing up to shout down alternative-energy proposals, progressives in the West should know they've got work to do.