… and I’m as happy as a pig in puppy poop. This is an exceedingly dangerous organization, and the fact that it is splitting when it should be at the height of its power is a good sign.

For those unaware, PJ—or "Justice First"—appeared as a conservative "civil society" organization around 1992 and as a party-type organization during the debates surrounding the constitution. What happened was this: the traditional parties collapsed, and left without a recepticle for anti-Chavez dollars, the U.S. government picked up PJ as a pet project and transformed it—by way of funding and organizational trainings–into the most serious anti-Chavista opposition group. (This is all well-documented in Eva Golinger’s The Chavez Code). 

Certainly, a look at the 2006 electoral results might not make PJ look quite so dangerous (click "ver detalle" next to Rosales). After all, Manuel Rosales’ "New Era" party got more votes than PJ, but once we realize the tendency to vote for the official party of the candidate (a tendency which explains the preponderance of the MVR in Chavez votes), things become more serious…. PJ got nearly as many votes as Rosales’ own party, and far more than COPEI and even Petkoff’s MAS. 

As a party, PJ claims to be "centrist humanist," but is really the heir to COPEI. What is dangerous, precisely, is the organization’s attempt to embrace this centrist image, a shift which is no doubt behind this split between the Lopez-Blyde axis and the Borges-Radonski alliance. The second dangerous thing is that PJ is a young and charismatic party, which boasts two well-placed leaders (mayors Leopoldo Lopez of Chacao and Henrique Radonski of Baruta).

Given the general support that the private media shows for PJ, it was excellent to see a member of the Buenas Noches team declare, during the fistfights accompanying the split, that "this party doesn’t deserve to govern."