Editorial: Lies, lies and more lies

Thursday, June 17, 2004 | 8:50 a.m.

President Bush, as part of a campaign swing across the country, will visit Reno on Friday. In advance of that trip, Bush-Cheney campaign chairman Marc Racicot insisted in an interview with the Associated Press that the "president has been entirely honest" with Nevadans about the Yucca Mountain project.

Yes, Racicot is referring to the same man who during the 2000 campaign said that he would use "sound science" in deciding whether to recommend if 77,000 tons of nuclear waste should be buried here. It's also the same man who, less than a year after being sworn into office, found that it was safe to send nuclear waste here despite the known perils from shipping man's deadliest waste and burying it in a geologically unsafe location like Yucca Mountain. That wasn't "sound science," that was all about politics and appeasing the nuclear power industry. Despite what the White House might think, adding another layer of lies to the first -- which was that Nevada would be treated fairly -- won't work this time and will further anger Nevadans.