Columnist Jon Ralston: Serving up some holiday food for thought

Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2001 | 8:31 a.m.

He's back. He doesn't have a hotel, but he still has a dime or two to rub together. Steve Wynn, who is preparing to unveil his plans for the Desert Inn property, recently coughed up a $49,000 check for the national Republican Party.

Specifically, Wynn gave to the Republican National Committee, showing he remains a Bushie after being a Clintonite for a time in the '90s (OK, it didn't last long). So perhaps this is a harbinger of things to come from Wynn Resorts in Campaign '02 -- I'm sure Gov. Kenny Guinn could use some money.

And with Wynn reappearing on the political scene, the only outstanding APB is for GOP benefactor Sheldon Adelson, who has hardly been seen since he took out those county commissioners and Rep. Shelley Berkley in 1998. Oh, yes, now I remember -- that didn't work out so well. If at first you don't succeed ...

You call this a leadership PAC? PoliticalMoneyLine (www.tray.com) recently ranked the country's top political action committees associated with senators and representatives -- and Sen. Harry Reid's Searchlight Leadership Fund ($298,833 contributed) was a disappointing 22nd, finishing behind the likes of New York Rep. Tom Reynolds, Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and California Rep. Jim McCrery.

I know these are larger states, senator, but this is embarrassing. You are, after all, the second most powerful man in the U.S. Senate. Your boss, Tom Daschle, the majority leader, was ranked third behind Trent Lott, the ex-majority leader, and a PAC for three of your colleagues called the New Democrat Network (Joe Lieberman, John Breaux and Rep. Cal Dooley).

Granted, Reid also has that soft money arm of his leadership PAC, where he can pile on the donations. But if he wants to keep the title of Reid the Ruthless, he better start moving up this list.

Making good on his first promise? Before he became the lesser half of Harry Ensign, Sen. John Ensign was a firebrand GOP conservative, preaching the evils of the federal government and inveighing against federal control of education.

But in his new incarnation, Ensign is all for the feds giving money to the states for education -- especially if the state is named Nevada. You may recall that back in March, in his first floor speech, praised by his better half, Ensign proposed a "High Growth Grant" as part of the federal education bill, part of the Ensign The Centrist campaign platform in 2000 to bring money back to Nevada. The idea was that the federal money should follow the growth in burgeoning areas such as Clark County, where a vast majority of its money comes from the state but federal funding reached $16 million this past year.

Fast forward to this week, as the Senate voted to pass the education bill, with Ensign's high-growth multiplier in the package, which he boasts will bring $75 million to the state during the next five years.

Ensign, who was on the conference committee, also quoted Gov. Kenny Guinn in his self-congratulatory news release. And, of course, the governor was all agog about how Ensign had secured all those millions of dollars for Nevada.

Reid, who said he was "very proud" of Ensign back in March after that baptismal floor speech, was not quoted.

This is not a partisan issue -- just ask the Democrats. As the Nuclear Energy Institute tries to provide political safe harbor for the Bush administration as it prepares to recommend Yucca Mountain for the dump, local and national Democrats are not missing the opportunity.

The local folks sent out a news release last week assailing Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and ex-Nevada Gov. Bob List for their positions on the dump.

And then, Speaker-in-Hoping Richard Gephardt referred to the issue briefly on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Consider this colloquy between host Tim Russert and Gephardt:

Russert: "Would you be willing to re-examine nuclear energy and expand it in this country?"

Gephardt: "I don't think there's any consensus of any kind on nuclear. It has environmental problems. We've still never figured out what to do with the waste."

He may not have figured it out. But the Bush administration sure has. And local Democrats surely have figured out that what's bad for Nevada (i.e., the dump selection) may be good for the party.