Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Cheap shot misses mark

Tuesday, June 4, 2002 | 8:51 a.m.

READING THE WALL STREET JOURNAL editorial pages along with several other newspapers is a daily chore I have adopted. This is a pleasant assignment and seldom does editorial content bother me because most issues have more than one side.

Last week, however, the WSJ had an unfair editorial, which had little constructive content. The editorial was a cheap shot. It called for the resignation of Robert Mueller as director of the FBI. The director, on the job for nine months, has taken several constructive steps to present more terrorists attacks and now needs our support and the help of Congress. He has a long record of outstanding public service, which started as a combat Marine in Vietnam. I took time to watch him Sunday on three national television news interviews and came away impressed with his sincerity and ability. Mueller has turned the complaints of an FBI attorney in Minnesota over to the inspector general of the Justice Department. Being that some attorney's complaints were aimed at him, his willingness to be scrutinized by an inspector general shows he is looking for an hone st evaluation and the truth. Very simply, the director is headed in the right direction and a lightweight editorial shouldn! 't distract him. The WSJ should follow the advice of Sen. Pat Leahy of Vermont and get off Mueller's back. ...

While on the subject of terrorism, Attorney General John Ashcroft, not my favorite public servant, has eased the guidelines for the FBI to fight terrorism. The agents now have the power to do what you, I and local police agencies have had the power to do for many years. They can now visit Internet sites, libraries, churches and political organizations. Not having this ability in the shadowy war fighting terrorism is ridiculous. Of course, all the information in the world is of little value if not properly analyzed and passed on to the people assigned to react. This is a new war brought to us by people who don't hesitate to kill us and our families. The restrictive investigatory guidelines brought about during the Cold War don't meet the rules of common sense in this new kind of war. Eventually, it will result in the demand for an international conve ntion to take a fresh look at the rules of war put forth by the Geneva Convention. For example, 52 years have passed since ! the most recent changes were made for the protection of victims of war.

This week there will be another Miller working in the office of the District Attorney. Ross Miller, an excellent student athlete from Bishop Gorman High School, is following in the footsteps of his father, Bob, who was an outstanding district attorney. Later he became governor of Nevada. Three weeks ago Bob handed Ross a Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration sheepskin at Loyola Law School's 81st Commencement. Not a small accomplishment in three years of graduate study. I knew that Ross was a better basketball player than his father, but his success as a student may put him at least equal to him in the classroom.

A former regent and later lieutenant governor, Bob Cashell, has put his name on the ballot again. This time he is offering his services to become Reno's mayor. My recollections of Cashell don't revolve around politics but his warm heart. One day, many years ago, I told him about the geriatric patients at the Nevada Mental Health Institute who needed warm slippers and suggested Christmas would be a good time to receive them. Not only did the geriatric patients get their slippers, but so did other patients. I called to thank him and got his expected reply, "Aw shucks, those folks shouldn't have cold feet."

The death of former state Senator Floyd Lamb brings back a lot of memories. He headed up the Senate Finance Committee during my years as governor, so it was natural that we would have some legislative differences. However, after giving his word to support a bill, it always received his full backing. The work of Lamb and fellow senators, Jim Gibson and John Fransway, made it possible for ailing elderly miners to receive industrial compensation. Although sometimes rough and tumble when differing with men, he maintained the cowboy image of being a gentleman around women. He was a true cowboy in every sense of the word.

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