Today's Las Vegas Review-Journal column by yours truly on Harry Reid "harboring a known Republican in his own state" is here.
Though there's been relatively little discussion of GOP Sen. John Ensign's looming cakewalk in the Nevada media, it has been chewed on a bit elsewhere. The Hill, a D.C. paper, described Ensign's free pass back in April. That piece in turn was picked up at Western Democrat, prompting comments expressing frustration with the state party, and apologizing for it. Daily Kos had a post in May from a "furious" contributor, and that too prompted some comments in defense of Reid and the state party.
If a serious Democrat challenger to Ensign magically appeared, there would be more than just Ensign's go-along get-along cookie-cutter corporate coddling Christian-nation Republicanism to campaign against (though that stuff's pretty good). Specifically, as noted elsewhere in these pages, when Ensign ran for Senate in 2000, he vowed that keeping nuclear waste out of the state would be among his top priorities. Moreover, he argued that the state needed a Republican senator, because a Republican would be in a better position to win over other Republicans. As it happened, he didn't win over any new Republicans--the two GOP senators who voted with Nevada to block Bush's designation of Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuke waste dump had opposed the project from the get-go. Ensign failed.
For the record, for kicks, whatever, here are some snippets featuring Ensign and the Yucca issue from stories that ran during the 2000 campaign:
- Nevada needs a Republican senator to help fight the efforts to bring nuclear waste to Nevada, he said. (R-J, 5-12-2000)
- "I took on (former House Speaker) Newt Gingrich on this and beat him, and I'm absolutely willing to go toe to toe with Trent Lott to keep nuclear waste out of our state,' Ensign said. (LVSun, 10-4-2000)
- Ensign said that as a member of the Senate's majority party he would have an easier time protecting Nevada's interests. On nuclear waste, for instance, he believes he would have a better chance convincing Republicans to vote for Nevada's position. (LVSun, 9-30-2000)
- "Ensign maintains Nevada needs a Republican to reason with the GOP sponsors of the bill and help turn some Republicans against the measure. He says Reid already has persuaded most Senate Democrats to oppose the bill." (LVSun, 9-5-2000)
- "Right now when any Nevada issue is on the table, there is no Nevadan in the room when the majority party lays down the agenda," Ensign said. (LVSun, 8-1-2000)
- "John just fundamentally disagrees with it," said Nevada delegate Pete Ernaut, campaign adviser to Ensign [on the GOP party platform backing Yucca]. "(The platform) reinforces the argument on why we need a Republican in the Senate as badly as we do. There's no one else to take up the fight on our side in the Senate."(LVSun, 8-1-2000)
And then, after the 2002 Senate vote to screw Nevada yet again, the Washington Post reported that Ensign tried to get his fellow Republicans on board...
- "But he earned no votes beyond those of the two Republican senators who supported him from the outset, Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island." (Washington Post [via AIEA], 7-10-2002)
Meantime, Reid may not think Nevada is fertile ground for Democratic candidates, but he urges the rest of the West to get on the stick and lead the way to a national Democratic Party revival. Read more about that here, and go figure.
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