Columnist: Playing the Name It Reagan game

You may not be aware of it -- most people aren't -- but there is a movement afoot to name many, many things in our country after Ronald Reagan. Public facilities (Washington, D.C., renamed its airport to honor the 40th president), natural landmarks, meaningful stretches of highway, buildings, schools -- pretty much anything you can hang a row of letters on or bolt a commemorative plaque to.

The Washington-based Reagan Legacy Project hopes to get such memorial drives going in all 50 states. That would serve as a momentum-building prelude to its ultimate goal: adding Reagan to Mount Rushmore.

We'll leave the logistics of that astonishing undertaking -- do they chop a fifth face from the unstable nubbin of rock nearby or recarve dumb ol' Teddy Roosevelt? -- to the Republican Corps of Engineers. Our concern is more immediate: What should we name after Reagan in Southern Nevada?

According to the Reagan Legacy website, no rechristening efforts are yet under way here. "We are in the process of gathering interested individuals in Nevada who would join our state advisory committee," e-mails Michael Kamburowski, executive director of the Reagan Legacy Project.

Nevada has some catching-up to do, Reagan-commemoration-wise. California, for instance, already has a Reagan freeway in L.A. County, a Reagan office building in Los Angeles, and a Reagan education center in Fresno, among others. Supporters in Ohio propose Reagan highways and statues. In Alaska, mountaineers plan to scale an unnamed peak this summer or next and name it after the former prez.

In the spirit of lending a hand, of

offering a boost, of, most importantly, filling this space, let's get the ball rolling here. Are there any new or soon-to-be-renovated public buildings crying out for a folksy new identity? Could a knob of sandstone in Red Rock Canyon be blasted into a Reaganesque profile to mark his environmental triumphs? Why not a row of conservative slots -- "33 percent payouts!" -- in a casino? The possibilities are numerous and exciting.

"I'd like to see 'em name the beltway after him," says local Republican operative Chuck Muth, who has a portrait of Reagan above his desk. "It'll probably be the most important project for this valley for many years. I think it would be very appropriate to name it after the former president."

But Muth isn't kidding himself; even among Republicans, memorializing Reagan is a low priority. "I may be the only one in the state who's even heard of it," he says, laughing.

"I haven't heard of it," Charlie Waterman, head of the local Democratic Party, says of the Reagan Legacy Project. "Thank God I haven't." That's not just his party membership talking; he genuinely thinks Reagan was an unmemorable leader. "If anything, it should be a monument to somnolence; he was asleep his entire administration." Then he turns serious. "I don't think you build monuments to someone who put us in the biggest national debt we've ever had."

Now, now, can't we put aside partisan resentments and ...

No, probably not. "Let me know if you are interested in joining," Kamburowski writes. Thanks, but count me out. A.) I'm a journalist, and we don't join political causes; B.) if I did join a political cause, it would be one a bit to the left of the Reagan Legacy Project; and C.) I'm one sarcastic bastard. I don't think I'm the sort of guy Kamburowski wants on board. My suggestions would focus on the dark-side aspects of the Reagan legacy: Let's dedicate a damp stretch of drainage ditch to honor the benefits of trickle-down Reaganomics. No, I wouldn't be able to mind my GOPs and Qs.

Clearly, with or without me, finding suitable landmarks will be slow going. However, we ought to have an easier time with any Clinton Legacy Project. How does the Bill Clinton Palomino Club grab you? Or the Bill Clinton Loosened Beltway? If only the Stratosphere Tower curved to the right!

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