Columnist Jon Ralston: A Yucca spin fest in the Senate

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Was it just another example of Democrats trying to transmute nuclear waste into a partisan issue? Or was it another sign that George W. Bush could be the most anti-Nevada president in history?

The answer is: both.

When Sen. Harry Reid cleverly induced Republican Sen. Pete Domenici into talking about Bush and the proposed dump at Yucca Mountain last week on the floor, he was looking for a way to help Vice President Al Gore's pathetic numbers in Nevada. What Domenici provided, though, was not only the raw political meat Reid ordered but another window into what Bush will do.

Ever since Bush's meaningless statement about the dump two months ago -- "I believe sound science, not politics, must prevail ..." -- Democrats have gleefully portrayed the soon-to-be nominee as soft on nuclear waste (not to mention hard on gaming). But their spinning has done nothing for Gore's fortunes here -- a recent poll showed Bush crushing him by 17 points.

Reid was trying to get the message to resonate as the election draws nigh. Reid and Sen. Richard Bryan's breathless "gotcha" statements after Domenici's comments are the Pavlovian yapping of partisan dogs. But this goes beyond politics. Domenici, not surprisingly, reacted by accusing the Nevadans of pandering during a campaign year. Sometimes, though, panderers tell the truth.

A closer look at Domenici's statement reveals much about Bush on the repository -- the New Mexican's ex-post facto denials notwithstanding. Most of the media focused on the words Domenici used to respond to Reid's question about whether Bush "would allow nuclear waste to go to Nevada" and ignored the Republican's initial words when Reid asked him to yield the floor.

"I know I'm saying something implicitly about your state but I didn't mean to," Domenici said initially. Let me translate: "I know I'm implying that we should accelerate sending the dump to Nevada but I didn't mean to get you mad, my distinguished colleague."

Domenici added matter-of-factly that "we will build a short-term nuclear waste facility within six months to eight months of the next president if he's Republican because it's totally safe. Whether they'll put it in your state or somewhere else, I don't know."

Now that takes disingenuousness to an art form. Nevada is the only place that has ever been considered for interim storage. And does anyone believe that if Bush is for interim storage, he would choose Deaf Smith County, Texas?

GOP Senate candidate John Ensign has claimed Bush passed the message through intermediaries that he would have vetoed the interim storage bill that Clinton did. But Bush never said anything remotely like that in his terse, hollow statement in May.

Fortunately for the state, this week Ensign & Co. can obstain a definitive answer at the party's national convention in Philadelphia. The Nevada delegation is scheduled to meet with high-level Bush advisers, including New York Gov. George Pataki, on Monday morning. Can't they get a definitive statement then, or later in the week?

The verdict already has been returned, though. Remember that prime dump mover Frank Murkowski, the Alaska Republican, declared after Clinton's last dump veto: "The bill is dead until we get a new administration."

And even though I ridiculed Reid for overstating the point when he kept claiming Bush would hasten waste to Nevada within six months of being elected, Domenici's comments indicate Nevada's senior senator knew whereof he spoke. Sometimes even partisan spin can be true, too.

The sad reality, though, is that Bush and Gore, who also has mouthed the sound science silliness, are only different in the time line. Gore may have helped block interim storage and lower radiation standards. But he is part of an administration that has done nothing to slow down the permanent repository steamroller.

The only difference is if Bush wins, the Nevadans will have to decide how to handle the waste coming to the state sooner than they will if Gore prevails.

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