Where I Stand -- Bob Miller: Don't forget Gore now

Editor's note: In August Where I Stand is written by guest columnists. Today's guest is former Gov. Bob Miller, an unflinching opponent of the federal government's plan to bury high-level nuclear waste in Nevada. Miller writes of the progress over the past decade in getting the White House to care about Nevada and listen to the state's concerns. He pinpoints the one presidential candidate who he feels sure will carry on this relatively new tradition.

THIS IS MY first guest column to Sun readers since I left public office. But as a former governor, I can't stop thinking about our state's future. A lifetime of commitment to our state has made it a habit. So as I watch the political news about the push and pull of the upcoming presidential campaign, I started to reflect on our state's experiences.

Not so long ago it was virtually commonplace for "conventional wisdom" to hold that we here in Nevada could not presume to expect presidential candidates to actually be interested and certainly not express sympathy for our concerns. After all, so it went, we have legalized gambling and the country wants to dump its nuclear garbage out here. We can't expect any presidential candidate, no less the president, to side with us on those issues.

President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore changed all that. And we should never listen to those who want to go back. Clinton unabashedly embraced Nevada. He has listened to our concerns and has used the power of his office to help our state. Working with our senators, Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, we relentlessly educated the president and his administration about our concerns. No opportunity was lost by any of us to let him know how opposed Nevadans were to the nuclear dump and how important the gaming industry was to our economy. Though the president is a friend and a political ally, often we were not shy. We always made it clear that Nevada's interests were paramount.

And that directness and forthrightness has paid off for Nevada. At every step of this administration, if it was within the powers of the administration, Clinton and Gore have stood with us. The president made Gore the point man on the nuclear dump issue. And when plans by the nuclear power industry and its allies in Congress wanted to rush a "temporary" nuclear dump to Nevada, it was Gore who stood in the way.

The administration listened to our concerns, realized the serious flaws in public policy, and the president declared that if such an anti-Nevada bill were to escape Congress, it would die with a stroke of a presidential veto. That strong, unwavering support by the president and vice president gave Sens. Reid and Bryan the backing they needed to marshal votes in support of the veto.

The nuclear lobby did not give up, and its hold on Congress has not slackened, so for three sessions the president and the vice president stood between us and a certain nuclear dump.

When voices inside the administration floated a dangerous tax targeting the gaming industry, the president listened to our concerns and the ill-advised idea was relegated to the dust bin.

Reid, concerned about the environmental treasure that is Lake Tahoe, put together a presidential summit on the lake. The vice president, a longtime friend of Reid, led the way. The vice president, with his unrivaled commitment to our environment, helped forge the historic commitment by the federal government, California and Nevada to protect the lake from pollution. The vice president didn't need any primer on the lake or our concerns. Years of listening to his Nevada colleagues has resulted in his being dubbed "Nevada's third senator." It's a title, I'm proud to tell you, he embraces and does not shy away from.

So as Nevadans evaluate this year's crop of presidential pretenders, they should pause and think about Nevada's track record. For way too long we were treated like second-class Americans, like it was somehow inappropriate, even in bad taste, for us to expect too much from presidential candidates and presidents. Even now, you can hear the voices here in Las Vegas say that we should not expect too much, that "after all, how can we expect anyone to publicly side with us ..."

We should reject this self-inflicted purgatory. If candidates expect our support we should demand to know where they stand now and in the past on the nuclear dump issue. Do they understand the economic impact of the gaming industry? Will they counter the far right's attack on our economy? Do they understand the beauty of our state, and where do they stand in taking measures to protect that legacy? This is not a hard test, but it is a vital one.

I simply suggest that when we give that test, one and only one candidate will pass with flying colors. Vice President Gore has stood with us time and time again and he stood with us when it wasn't easy. He listened, he acted and he stayed committed. Why would we want to settle for anything less?

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