Columnist Jon Ralston: GOP’s nuke vote glee premature

Sunday, April 16, 2000 | 11:04 a.m.

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 ralston@vegas.com.

The national Republican Party's nuclear waste preening this week in Washington was designed to impress two audiences and showed that the GOP leaders have mastered a couple of hoary political laws.

The Capitol Hill media stunt could not have been staged to pressure President Clinton, whose veto is assured. But starting with Speaker Dennis Hastert, whose district is teeming with nuclear waste, the Republicans were hewing to one of his predecessor's mantras, "All politics is local."

As much as Nevada doesn't want the dump, districts with power plants don't want the waste, either. And as they patted themselves on the back with one hand for getting the bill through Congress, Hastert & Co. were reaching with the other to insert their nuclear industry ATM card, an exemplary case of "money is the mother's milk of politics."

Beyond their mastery of Politics 101, the GOP leaders who celebrated the bill's congressional passage -- just as key Nevada Republicans were in Washington -- were like the death row inmate jumping for joy because his jailers found Tiramisu for his last meal. It might feel good for a moment, but the needle still awaits. Unless, of course, they get a reprieve from George W. Bush.

I feel about Bush, who is advised by dump proponents and takes their money, the way I would sheepishly admonish my 4-year-old daughter to clean up her room after she wanders into my home office that doubles as a Superfund cleanup site: Do what I say, not what I do. Bush has said little and has shunned Nevada as if it, well, had a dangerous nuclear waste dump to be avoided.

But what did Bush say when Rep. Jim Gibbons reportedly got assurances from him a couple of months ago? "I'll tell you exactly what he said," Gibbons declared last week. " 'Jim, I know this issue is important to you. I will listen to your concerns about this issue and other issues. And the decision should be made on sound science.' "

When I suggested to the good congressman that Bush's comments to him were the usual mush, Gibbons responded: "I have to admit Texas has nuclear power plants in it. And he didn't say he would stand in the way." Exactly. If they pass it, Bush will sign it, the DOE will build it and the waste will come.

As they leap through the political door the Republicans are politely holding for them, gleeful Democrats will find some of their logic falls apart on close inspection as they pound away at Senate contender John Ensign and congressional hopeful Jon Porter. For instance, what is the argument Democrat Ed Bernstein would make against Ensign's claim to be able to have the ear of the GOP leaders: that he can round up Democratic votes that Minority Whip Harry Reid can't? I don't think so.

But this is not about logic. It is about politics. And if the Democrats here can get their act together, they can use this issue to help Al Gore and cast a pall over Ensign and Porter.

Granted, Gore's position on the permanent dump project is no different than Bush's -- he says let science decide -- but he has committed to veto any interim storage legislation or the current measure that lowers radiation standards. When Ensign & Co. get their promised statement from the Bush campaign, will the Texas governor, too, promise such a veto? And can we believe him even if he does? I don't think so.

This will not end soon. The Democrats plan an answer to the enrollment ceremony by having a press performance when Clinton vetoes the bill, probably within the next two weeks. The politics, at least for this year, will be settled in November. But the results of the presidential election could determine just how quickly the Yucca Mountain Express gets back on track.