Editorial: Nevada’s Yucca view gets big lift

Thursday, March 14, 2002 | 8:41 a.m.

Two former White House chiefs of staff will pack a powerful one-two punch for Nevada in the coming weeks. The state needs their clout as it lobbies the U.S. Senate in hopes of sustaining Gov. Kenny Guinn's inevitable veto of President Bush's recommendation of Yucca Mountain as the nation's burial site for high-level nuclear waste. John Podesta, a Democrat who served as Bill Clinton's chief of staff during his final two years as president, and Ken Duberstein, who oversaw the White House during the final year of the Reagan presidency, are on board as paid lobbyists to persuade senators that Nevada's position opposing the site is valid.

A majority vote is needed in the Senate to sustain Guinn's veto, meaning 51 senators must line up with Nevada's point of view. This means Nevada's senators, Majority Whip Harry Reid, a Democrat, and John Ensign, a Republican, have a big job ahead. It's a coup for the senators to have enlisted the aid of two such well-placed Washington insiders as Podesta and Duberstein.

Podesta, a Georgetown University Law Center graduate and currently a law professor there, has been around Washington for 25 years. His experience as a lawyer serving Senate committees, and later serving as counselor to Senate Democratic Majority Leader Tom Daschle, will open doors as he makes the rounds on Nevada's behalf. He was named deputy White House chief of staff in 1997 and chief of staff in 1998. President Clinton gave Podesta credit for the success of many of his administration's environmental initiatives. This background will serve Nevada well as he stresses the environmental dangers of Yucca Mountain. Duberstein brings an equally impressive background to the job. With his many friends in Congress and the White House, including close friends Sen. John McCain and Secretary of State Colin Powell, he enjoys a reputation as being one of the most powe rful men in Washington. After the Reagan years he formed a lobbying firm and represents dozens of corporations before Senat! e committees.

Nevada's political leaders, Republican and Democrat alike, remain firmly united in their opposition to Yucca Mountain. But in Nevada all they can do is preach to the choir. In Washington, with able assists from our senators, Duberstein and Podesta will be able to preach to the inner circles, where right now it counts the most.