Inaugural tickets aren't the hot items they were in '93

      WASHINGTON -- Nevadans flooded their congressional offices four years ago with ticket requests for President Clinton's inauguration, but demand for his second swearing-in is more like a trickle.
      Maybe it has something to do with the site of the presidential inaugural ball for Nevada and other Western states. In 1993, the Western ball was at the stately Kennedy Center. This year, it will be at the Washington Hilton, a less glamorous landmark also known as the Hinckley Hilton because it's where John Hinckley shot President Reagan in 1981.
      Just four days before today's inauguration, Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., still had more than half the 391 tickets he was allotted.
      But even the diminished demand shows more interest than Nevadans anticipated.
      "We expected to give away about 100 tickets between the two (senators') offices, and we've already given away about 300," said Bryan aide Lori Levitt of Reno, referring to her boss and fellow Nevada Democrat Sen. Harry Reid.
      "We expect more requests the closer we get to the inauguration, but so far we haven't had any problems giving tickets to people who have asked for them," she said.
      Predictably, interest on the Republican side is even dimmer. Of the 197 tickets distributed to Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., only 45 are gone.
      Ensign doesn't plan to attend the inauguration, but newly elected Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., will.
      In a sign of hope for bipartisanship, Gibbons is providing tickets for a teachers' group that campaigned for his opponent last fall.
      It's a far cry from the frantic wheeling and dealing in 1993 when Nevada staffers had to turn down requests from other congressional offices, as everyone made a desperate search for extra tickets.
      "If we have any left over, other offices will get them. We don't want these tickets to go to waste," Levitt said.
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