Nearly 100 protest Cheney’s LV visit

Heather Rawlyk

Monday, June 21, 2004 | 10:01 a.m.

Nearly 100 people gathered in front of the "Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign on Las Vegas Boulevard South Sunday afternoon equipped with signs, "Elect Kerry" buttons and radiation-suit costumes in protest of today's arrival of Vice President Dick Cheney.

The protesters, who ranged from Nevada State Democratic Party members to the Southern Nevada Group of the Sierra Club, battled the heat and bunched in front of the famous sign and alongside Las Vegas Boulevard South from 3 to 4:30 p.m., waving signs with phrases such as "Hell No We Won't Glow" and "Where's Bush?" along with some more colorful phrases not appropriate for a family newspaper.

Jon Summers, communications director for the Nevada State Democratic Party, said he helped organize the protest because he believes President George W. Bush should be the one speaking to Las Vegas, not Cheney.

"We're mainly concerned here with Yucca Mountain and we think that Bush is ducking the issue on that one," Summers said. "He won't come to Las Vegas because he's afraid to deal with the fact that he lied.

"Kerry has been here and is not afraid to confront any criticism, but Bush has to send everyone else to (Las Vegas) to do his dirty work," he said.

Jane Feldman, conservation coordinator for the local Sierra Club, said she was there to protest because she didn't like "Bush's energy, war and environmental policies."

"A friend at church told me about the protest this morning so I figured this is something I ought to do," she said. "We may not be here for Cheney to see when the motorcade drives by, but he (Cheney) is going to see this on TV and in the newspapers and get the message that we don't approve of what's going on."

Republicans defend the president even though they may disagree with him on Yucca Mountain. The president signed off on making Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the nation's nuclear waste repository. Bush was in Reno on Friday. Gov. Kenny Guinn and state Attorney General Brian Sandoval rode from the airport to the convention hall where Bush spoke with the president. They said Bush felt the decision was made on science, knew the Nevadans opposition and supported the state's right to sue and have the matter settled in court.

Bush was criticized by Democrats for not mentioning Yucca Mountain in his speech Friday, but Guinn said he was not surprised Bush did not mention it to a Nevada audience because it has "been talked over and over now for the last two years."

"I don't think it (Yucca Mountain) is the biggest issue from the latest poll I've seen," Guinn said. "It puts security number one and jobs number two. And then it starts spreading out and Yucca comes down quite a ways on that list."

"Yucca Mountain is one issue for him and it's one issue for us. We've had that issue for 20 years," Guinn said.