Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: What are we thinking?

Thursday, Oct. 26, 2000 | 9:40 a.m.

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

Welcome to Las Vegas, Sen. Lieberman.

I am writing this column in honor of your visit, mostly out of respect and partly out of guilt. The guilt, of course, comes from the fact that I won't be in town to personally greet you along with the thousands of Las Vegans who eagerly await your arrival. You understand that kind of guilt, don't you?

The respect with which I write this is not because you are a U.S. senator, although that in itself is deserving of everyone's respect for the work that you and your colleagues do on behalf of the American people. Let me be absolutely clear, many of your colleagues on both sides of the aisle deserve respect, others deserve to be unelected at the first opportunity!

You have been to Nevada before, and we have always turned out to support your election and re-election efforts because you represent what is good in this country and what is responsible in public office. Today, however, you come in a different role, and it is in that capacity that I am most happy to welcome you.

It is no secret that you are the first Jewish American to run on a major party ticket for vice president. While being chosen for this great honor is a reflection upon you and your great ability, it also provides an incredible insight into the kind and quality of person that Al Gore is for choosing you.

There were many safer choices for a man who knew he would have a tough race for the presidency, so when Vice President Gore picked you to be his running mate he broke down one of the last remaining barriers of prejudice that still exists in this country. The test, of course, will be to see if the voters of America are equally up to the task. I believe they are.

Now that you have been properly acknowledged, perhaps you can find time in your brief but very important visit to shed some light on some things that continue to puzzle me about Nevada and this election.

Eight years ago my fellow Nevadans broke a long-standing tradition of voting Republican -- it had been almost 30 years -- and supported Bill Clinton for president. He made the case that our economy was in shambles, our schoolchildren needed help and the working men and women in this country needed a break -- not just a tax break. Four years later they did it again, helping to re-elect President Clinton and making him one of the few Democrats in this century to be returned to the White House.

In return for our support and, most importantly, because it has been the right thing to do, Clinton has stood tall against a Republican-orchestrated effort to dump the nation's high-level nuclear waste on Nevada. He not only threatened to veto bills pushed through Congress by Sen. Trent Lott, he actually also did so this past year when the only thing standing between us and 10,000 years of radioactive misery was his veto.

Fortunately, Sens. Harry Reid and Dick Bryan were ready with enough votes, almost all of them Democratic, to support that veto in spite of promises by Lott and his GOP colleagues to make sure that dump made it to Nevada ASAP.

This year, though, there is something else at play. Nevadans have never had it so good if you look at all the economic indicators. Jobs have been plentiful nationwide, especially in the Silver State. Welfare rolls are down, incomes are up and the world is a genuinely more peaceful place than it was just a few years ago.

So why is the election so close in Nevada?

Regardless of what he and his minions in Nevada say, the voters must know that Gov. George W. Bush will not stand in the way of the GOP-controlled Senate's next effort to send the nuclear waste to this state -- just a few miles up the road from Oscar Goodman's dream of an urban-renewed downtown Las Vegas. And according to the respected Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, that bill should be the first order of business after Bush is sworn in next January. That means, if Bush wins, Nevadans will see, hear and feel the nuke garbage rolling through our city streets within months after the next Inaugural Ball.

Why, Sen. Lieberman, are Nevadans so hellbent on voting for a man who will do us no favors and so much harm as soon as his party requires him to do so?

And why, senator, are Nevada voters so anxious to vote against the man whose party has done so much to slow down or stop the Republican-led onslaught on the gaming industry? If it weren't for Gore and the Democrats in the Senate -- helping out Harry Reid -- gaming would be on the downturn and tens of thousands of people would be looking for new lines of work.

I'm not saying it is all Republicans and no Democrats trying to damage our No. 1 industry and our livelihoods, but the facts are very clear that the Republicans are at the head of the list when looking for culprits.

So, senator, help me understand if you can. By all rights, Al Gore should be running away with this state and, yet, it is still close. Perhaps while I am gone, you can think of a good answer because I haven't got a clue.

And please, don't tell me it is because Nevadans are thinking only about a tax cut and have thrown reason and good sense away. We aren't like that. We are responsible people in this state.

We are. We are.