Jon Ralston on the awkward position in which Bush’s visit puts the state GOP

Sunday, April 23, 2006 | 7:25 a.m.

The most powerful man on the planet is coming to town Monday, and I couldn't feel more compassion for his hosts - Rep. Jon Porter and the state GOP.

Porter and the Republicans are opening their house, aka The Venetian, to President Bush in the way that a bank might welcome a deposit from a dictator who has committed serial human rights abuses. They want the money. But they really don't desire the guilt by association.

Many Republican candidates this year will not invite into their districts a president drowning in the worst approval ratings since approval ratings have been measured for White House occupants. Here in Nevada, national pollster Peter Hart recently found that 52 percent of Nevadans have a negative view of Bush and only 39 percent have a positive view of the president. Bush doesn't have coattails; he has cement shoes.

I understand why the state party needs to embrace the president. He is, after all, a Republican. He is, after all, the president. And, after all, the state GOP is broke.

Porter, though, is far from penniless. He has $1.3 million in his bank account and really doesn't need much help from Bush to outpace Democratic challenger Tessa Hafen, who is a million behind. So the benefits from the money the president brings in are negligible at best, especially since there are a whole lot of Democrats in Porter's divided district who really don't like Bush.

But the detriment to the Porter campaign probably is minimal from being so closely associated with the president as the administration convulses with staff changes and historians begin to muse if he is the worst president ever.

The congressman may be fortunate that no one much cares about the Yucca Mountain issue anymore. Nevadans have heard it all in the last two decades, and it never seems to cut much as a political issue.

No one has yet seen any benefit from pointing out that Bush has been the most actively hostile president on the nuclear waste dump, lying about it during his first campaign, stringing along the compliant Nevada GOP elected elite after he became president and then affixing his name to the legislation that could ensure Yucca Mountain would one day be filled with waste.

Other presidents may have been guilty of benign neglect, including Bill Clinton, who did nothing to stop the permanent dump project. But no president has ever treated the state so badly, patronizing his putative allies and disregarding any real scientific findings.

In fact, even beyond Yucca Mountain, it's hard not to conclude that Bush simply takes Nevada for granted since he has won twice here and the state has received nothing in return. The latest example, of course, is his administration's snub of Las Vegas when it comes to Homeland Security funding, which is something people should care about even more than the dump.

Yet Porter and the state GOP remain willing to welcome him to Las Vegas where the Democrats will concoct some lame, predictable protest and the media will fawn over the great man visiting our little state. And the congressman will do his best to embrace Bush while distancing himself at the same time - perhaps he will tell us they "agree to disagree" on Yucca Mountain? Where have we heard that before?

The hypocrisy is redolent. Porter and the other GOP folks expressed their outrage 10 days ago when Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman came to town and they attacked him for signing off on the new legislation to accelerate the dump's opening. Reality check: Who proposed that bill, and who is Bodman's boss?

What's more, the man being feted Monday is the same man who Porter will be obliquely lambasting just a day later when he uses that federal subcommittee he heads for a dog and pony show to get publicity and hammer the Energy Department for "mismanagement and quality assurance weaknesses at Yucca Mountain." Again I ask: Who is ultimately responsible for the DOE?

But perhaps I am wrong about all of this, perhaps there will be no discomfort at all Monday, perhaps Porter will step up dramatically on stage and say to Bush:

"Mr. President, as much as we might be honored to have you here, I must ask you to explain to my fellow Nevadans how you could have done what you have done to this state. Please, sir, you must answer for your actions."

Or perhaps another Republican official, such as Sen. John Ensign, will do so. Or, perhaps, they will do what most politicians seeking re-election do in such situations:

Take the money and run.