LAS VEGAS SUN FILE
Sen. Howard Cannon, a Democrat, served four terms, and Nevada benefitted from his seniority.
Sunday, March 1, 2009 | 2 a.m.
What is this thing that the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s publisher has going with the U.S. Senate’s majority leader and Nevada’s senior senator, Harry Reid?
Is it love? Or is it obsession?
Whatever it is — you know, that compulsion to write ad nauseam about Reid every week, perhaps every day, on his blog and in his dreams — it isn’t healthy. I think someone has to intervene and save Sherm from himself.
His constant attacks on Reid, which Sherm is obviously doing in an effort to soften Reid up before his reelection bid in 2010, have the potential not of destroying Nevada’s most powerful politician, and one of our country’s most capable leaders, but of destroying the man who would be kingmaker.
Sherm clearly views himself as the man with the best vantage point from which to tell Nevadans what is good for them and bad for them. While I don’t profess to understand the obsession he has with Harry Reid, I can recognize the danger signs, in much the same way any American would recognize them in a colleague or friend just before he is about to go over the edge.
And, as much as I think my friend Sherm is too far over his head in trying to run a large-city newspaper — unless running it into the ground is a desirable direction — I hold him no ill will. Unlike what is apparent in his anti-Reid rants.
The problem is that if Sherm goes over to the dark side or if I retire early, the only thing Nevadans will miss is something obnoxious and something truly pleasurable. The readers can decide which one is which.
But, if Nevada loses its one great opportunity in the modern era to have a loud, consistent and caring voice for Silver Staters in the halls of the U.S. Congress, we will have done ourselves a great disservice.
As an example of the power of seniority only, let me tell you about a man most readers either don’t remember or even know about. Sen. Howard Cannon was a man who rose through the chairs of Senate seniority in the 1960s and ’70s to become one of the most powerful men in Washington.
Sen. Cannon was a solid and stalwart advocate for Nevada. Unfortunately, he got caught up in a politically perfect storm that saw him lose his reelection bid to Chic Hecht.
Chic was a nice man but let’s look at what happened as a result of that strange and unexpected turn of events. The seniority that would have managed to send billions of dollars Nevada’s way in the 1980s and ’90s — when we could have used it for schools, roads and other infrastructure — didn’t happen.
And, more important, the federal government’s desire to stick the nation’s nuclear waste in Nevada would never have gotten out of committee. Instead, with the powerless Hecht in the Senate, Congress shoved Yucca Mountain down our throat.
Fast forward to 2009 and the R-J’s publisher is trying to put doubt into the voters’ minds about the enormous power that Reid wields and his ability to use his position to advantage the state in which he was born and for which he has worked so hard his entire life.
Recently, Sherm questioned why Reid didn’t help Nevada in the stimulus package that President Barack Obama just signed into law. To support his position, he told his readers that Nevada ranked at the bottom of all 50 states in the amount of money to be received through that legislation.
The problem here is simple. Sherm is dead wrong and, worse, he knows it.
In almost every category measurable, Nevada will receive money in amounts far greater than its per-capita ranking among the states. We are ranked 35th by population and, yet, we will get money as if we were 25th, 29th, 12th and some other positive ratings in various categories of funding compared to what we would ordinarily be entitled.
Far more important, Harry Reid almost single-handedly gave Nevada a lifeline that will be responsible for saving tens of thousands of jobs throughout the state. At a time when the casino industry in drowning under the dead weight of too much debt, Reid’s efforts will allow businesses to invest in their own debt in ways that will allow employers to save jobs, not end them.
And, even though some have derided a bullet train — there are always some — the idea of Southern Californians spending 70 minutes on a train rather than seven hours in a car is a self-evident tourism advantage.
With all due respect to the other members of the Nevada delegation, none of this would have happened — hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs — were it not for Sen. Harry Reid.
Sherm questions, “What has Harry done for Nevada?” And then he makes up the answer!
And here’s the most blatant effort to hoodwink his readers. He continuously questions Reid’s efforts to keep the nation’s nuclear waste out of Nevada. Sherm knows full well that just one accident on Interstate 15 anywhere near the Strip or even on its way into the state, would close down Las Vegas for business in a way that would make this economic disaster we are experiencing seem like child’s play. And, yet, he continually questions the necessity of having a man in Reid’s position to enable Nevadans to breathe a sigh of relief one day when that monster is finally killed.
The fact is that Harry Reid has only been able to do so much. But, he has done so much. By using the budgeting process to slowly strangle Yucca Mountain, he has slowed the Yucca train down long enough to finally get a president in office who promises to kill it once and for all. And now it looks as if the nuclear garbage dump is on its last legs or, at least, reeling.
Now is not the time to remove Harry Reid. Now is the time to empower him and, by so doing, empower all Nevadans to finally take control of their futures by shoving this bad idea back down the throats of the power companies and federal bureaucrats who have never cared what happens in Nevada.
Last week, Republican bigwig and GOP kingmaker Sig Rogich came out in full support of Harry Reid’s reelection and, if you read between the lines, questioned the sanity of anyone who would want otherwise for Nevada. All I have done is question the obsession.
Or, is it love?
Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.
