Delightful power

     Lord Acton's 1887 assertion, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely," today has a place among storied political quotations. Perhaps less well-known, however, is the follow-up, attributed to Anonymous, that, "Power can corrupt, but absolute power is absolutely delightful."
      In would be too harsh to apply Lord Acton's words to Bill Raggio, the Reno Republican who serves as majority leader in the Nevada Senate. Anonymous, however, may have captured the essence of Mr. Raggio's style.
      How else to explain Mr. Raggio's reaction to an Assembly bill that would take a common-sense step and return the name Tule Springs to a state park now named after convicted felon Floyd Lamb? The name change came in 1977, when Mr. Lamb was one of the state's most powerful political figures. Six years later, however, he resigned from state office when he was found guilty of taking $20,000 in bribes from an undercover FBI agent.
      But Mr. Raggio, who served with Mr. Lamb in the Legislature, feels the bill is "kind of punitive." He goes on to say, "If it was appropriate at the time to name (the park) after him, it should be appropriate now. Floyd Lamb put in a great deal of service to the state."
      Hello? Has the rarefied air fogged Mr. Raggio's brain? Floyd Lamb was convicted in a court of law of attempted extortion. He got caught in an FBI sting at the same time he was sworn to serve the citizens of the state. Now those same citizens are supposed to sit complacently when a park they pay to maintain bears the name of a man who violated a sacred trust and disgraced his office?
      The at-the-time-it-seemed-like-a-good-idea defense for maintaining the park name wouldn't wash with an elementary school moot court. Perhaps Mr. Raggio would rise in support of a Spiro Agnew Government Center. Maybe he'd make an impassioned plea for the Dan Rostenkowski Memorial Post Office.
      Mr. Raggio, a smart man, surely knows the folly of his position. Yet as the powerful leader of the state's upper house, he wants to do a favor for a former crony -- and he obviously takes great delight, as Anonymous postulated, in having the power to do just that.
      The legislation, Assembly Bill 302, was sponsored by Assemblywoman Kathy Von Tobel, R-Las Vegas. Twenty-two of her colleagues have signed on in support, meaning it will almost certainly get out of that house. But Mr. Raggio's opposition threatens to stall the bill in the Senate. Similar bills have failed in the past.
      On May 1, Southern Nevadans will have a chance to comment on the issue. The Nevada Parks Division will hold a public meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Room 101 of the Cashman Field Center to discuss the name change and expansion of the park.
      Perhaps if enough people express their desire to remove a convicted felon's name from a popular state park, a majority of the state Senate will muster the courage to at least temporarily come out from under the mystic sway of Mr. Raggio and pass what should be a no-brainer.