Cheney reaffirms Bush stance on Yucca Mountain

Kirsten Searer

Friday, Sept. 3, 2004 | 5:01 a.m.

Vice President Dick Cheney repeated the same message Friday about putting the Yucca Mountain project in Nevada that President Bush made when he visited the area in August.

Cheney, speaking to an estimated 2,000 supporters at Cashman Center, said that Bush has relied on sound science when making decisions about the project and will honor any court decisions that affect the project.

"We will keep the people of Nevada safe," Cheney said. The crowd answered with a cheer, just as they did through most of his speech.

Many Republicans said they were motivated after this week's Republican National Convention.

"You can feel it here today," Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt.

Cheney was interrupted by one protester, whom Secret Service agents dragged out of the auditorium by his hands and feet.

"Looks we better put him down as undecided," Cheney said afterward.

Outside about 80 protesters held up signs and chanted slogans against the administration's position on the Yucca Mountain project.

Cheney, however, was often interrupted with chants of "four more years" and "flip-flop," meant to describe Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

"This is a great crowd," said Cheney, on his fifth visit to Las Vegas this year. "I'm having a lot of trouble concentrating on my speech."

The vice president focused largely on the war on terrorism, saying the administration has shut down funding for terrorists and captured or killed "most of the masterminds" behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

"To put it simply, this is an enemy that we must destroy," he said.

Cheney criticized Kerry's plan to reach out to more allies when making decisions about terrorism and fighting a more sensitive war.

"Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness," he said.

Las Vegas resident Glen Moore called the vice president's speech and this week's convention, "outstanding."

"They talked about everything that was important," he said.

Moore said that Bush had dealt with tough decisions about the Yucca Mountain project years before he entered office.

"I think he probably weighed everything and made the best decision he thought was right," Moore said, a 50-year-old part-time resident of Las Vegas.

Jerry Shaner, a 47-year-old retiree who once worked at the Nevada Test Site, said he thinks people don't understand the Yucca Mountain project.

"They worry about what's going to happen 10,000 years from now," he said. "In my mind, we should worry about what's going on now."

Cheney was expected to stay overnight in Las Vegas before heading to Roswell, N.M., for his next campaign stop.

Kirsten Searer can be reached at (702) 259-4062 or searer@lasvegassun.com.