Editorial: Mangling notion of democracy

Tuesday, March 21, 2000 | 10:17 a.m.

Even though the federal government has yet to finish its scientific investigation to see if it is safe to store nuclear waste in Nevada, the House could vote as soon as Wednesday on legislation that would permit 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste to be sent to this state by 2007. The Senate passed similar legislation earlier this year, 64-34, which meant that the bill fell just three votes shy of what is necessary to override President Clinton's promised veto of this irresponsible measure.

So Nevadans naturally were curious to hear what House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who was in Las Vegas on Sunday, had to say about the issue. At a news conference following a fund-raiser for state Sen. Jon Porter, a Republican candidate for the House, Hastert told reporters that he believed it was necessary to hold a vote because there are so many members of Congress who represent states with nuclear power. "I have an obligation to 31 states to bring the bill up and have a discussion. That's how democracy works," Hastert said.

Despite what Hastert contends, his "obligation" as the leader of the House is more than just to appease all those states that have commercial nuclear power reactors. Hastert also has a duty to ensure that this deliberative body doesn't take actions that trample any sense of decency or fairness that government is supposed to provide all its citizens, not just those from big states with large congressional delegations.

And while Hastert tries to make this sound as if he's just being responsive to members of Congress, the reality is that there is no public groundswell to send nuclear waste to Nevada. What actually is driving this issue is the clout of the nuclear power industry. This influential lobby on Capitol Hill has been trying to ramrod such legislation through Congress, even as scientific evidence mounts showing how dangerous a repository in Nevada would be to public safety and the environment.

This is not about democracy. This is about the Republican House leadership waging tyranny against a small state. It is obvious that, from Hastert's view, "democracy works" when sound science is ignored, allowing one of the most politically powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill to prevail so it can get radioactive garbage off its hands.