Editorial: Nevadans deserve an answer, too

Saturday, Sept. 16, 2000 | 6:17 a.m.

It was a rough couple of weeks for George W. Bush. The Republican presidential nominee's campaign was distracted by the debate over the debates, Bush's use of an expletive to describe a New York Times reporter, his running mate's failure to vote in 14 of the last 16 elections and a controversy over whether one of the campaign's television ads used a subliminal message.

Trying to get his campaign back on track, Bush went to an old standby: shamelessly stealing his opponent's policies and messages. After he lost to reform-minded John McCain in the New Hampshire primary, Bush's campaign slogan overnight became the "Reformer with Results." Since it worked once before, Bush last week decided another campaign makeover was necessary.

Bush, who has had a dismal environmental record as governor of Texas, now is promoting himself as the best friend conservation ever had. On Wednesday he visited Washington state, where he not only invoked the nation's foremost environmental president, Teddy Roosevelt, he also criticized the Clinton administration's environmental record. All the nation's polluting industries must have had a good laugh when they heard that, especially considering how much they have fought the administration's conservation policies.

Bush also took the opportunity to wade into a Washington state controversy of whether salmon and hydroelectric power can co-exist. Specifically, Bush criticized Gore for failing to take a position on whether plans to breach dams would endanger the region's major rivers, which in turn would harm the economically vital salmon population. "I think you deserve an answer," Bush told 100 supporters at a campaign stop in Everett. "I think you need to know where he stands on this important environmental issue." Bush's taunting of Gore will prick the ears of Nevadans, since the residents of this state have been trying in vain to get Bush to weigh in on the federal government's plans to send nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Don't forget that in June, when Bush made his only campaign stop so far in Nevada, he moved faster than a roadrunner in dodging local reporters on the issue. Why? He feared he might have to reveal his views on the most important environmental and public safety issue facing Nevada: the Republican Congress' legislation to store 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Bush and his aides refused to say whether Bush would have vetoed legislation -- as did President Clinton -- that would have placed the waste on a fast track to Nevada. In contrast, Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic presidential nominee, supported the veto.

Of course, there's a simple reason for Bush's hemming and hawing. He knows that if he had been president, he would have signed into law that Republican-drafted nuclear waste legislation -- something he doesn't want to tell Nevadans since it would cost him this state's four electoral votes. Normally, such a small state wouldn't be a bother to presidential candidates, but in a presidential election that looks to be a squeaker, even Nevada will be courted by both candidates this year.

Bush keeps talking about the need to "restore honor and dignity" to the White House. If he genuinely believed this, though, he would first restore honor and dignity to the campaign trail by speaking forthrightly -- and that includes leveling with Nevadans on what he would do as president regarding congressional efforts to send nuclear waste to this state. Besides, is it really worth winning the White House if you have to disguise your policies and skirt answering questions on the important issues confronting this nation?