Sunday, November 23, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Yucca activists planning Bush protests

President making first visit to Las Vegas since approving plans for nuclear repository here

A coalition of local groups is hoping President Bush's visit to Las Vegas next week is noted for the same types of raucous protests that greeted Bush last week in England.

The group won't be toppling a statue of Bush a la Saddam Hussein as the Brits did, but they will have "Yucca Man" and a mock nuclear cask parading along the Strip outside the Venetian, where Bush will stump at a $2,000-a-plate fund-raiser.

Peggy Maze Johnson of Citizen Alert has been an active player in the "November 25th Committee," a hodgepodge of environmental and union activists, seniors and Democratic Party faithful planning the protest.

"Yucca Mountain is the main area we're interested in," Johnson said, referring to Bush's approval of the nuclear repository 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The group didn't protest recent visits by two Democratic presidential candidates who have been soft on Yucca, from Nevada's perspective.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, an ardent proponent of the repository several years ago, said in Las Vegas that "I've seen the light." He didn't, however, say that he'd throw out plans for the site.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., said last week during a stop in Las Vegas that he wouldn't move forward if he didn't feel the facility was safe. "Sound science and progressive thinking need to examine this," Lieberman said.

In 1999 he wrote a letter to the chairman of the committee governing Yucca policy and requested that an accelerated time frame be established once the repository was approved.

"I guess I have to say that I understand where they were coming from," Johnson said of the Democrats. "I'm sure maybe if I were governor of Vermont, then I would have felt the same way."

Johnson said even Nevada's politicians have "evolved" on the nuclear waste issue, going from considering support for the repository in exchange for benefits to outright opposition.

Democrats are using the Yucca issue in a series of attacks on Bush leading up to Tuesday's appearance.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, gave the Democratic National Committee's radio address Saturday, in which he decried the president's quick decision to approve Yucca and ignore safety.

"Later this week, on Tuesday, President Bush is traveling to Las Vegas for the first time since breaking his promise to the people of Nevada and he will be met by folks from across our state urging him to reconsider his decision, not just for the safety of the people of Nevada, but for Americans all across the country," Perkins said.

A group of Democrats including Perkins, U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., former Gov. Bob Miller, Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley and Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, both D-Las Vegas, will hold a news conference Monday morning.

The group will stand on the top of the Main Street Station parking garage downtown to point out the routes nuclear waste would take through the city.

Capital romance

Romance, it appears, is alive and well among Nevadans in Washington, D.C.

Adam Mayberry proposed to his girlfriend, Tammy Willis, in a nifty maneuver at the White House put together with help from his boss, Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev.

At the end of a White House tour on Oct. 25, Porter conspired with the Secret Service to have Mayberry and Willis diverted into the partitioned-off Diplomatic Reception Room, where President Franklin Roosevelt held his fireside chats.

Mayberry, 33, popped the question in front of the fireplace and amid the room's ornate furnishings and panoramic wallpaper. Willis, 31, said yes. A Secret Service agent then walked in and presented Willis with a single red rose.

"I had always told her the question would come when she least expected it," said Mayberry, Porter's press assistant.

Mayberry and Willis, who are from Reno, plan a July wedding.

New positions

Democratic consultant Mark Benoit, the main associate in Gray and Associates, is now working for a new general.

Benoit has moved to New York to head up Gen. Wesley Clark's campaign in the Empire state.

Rick Bennett, a lobbyist for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas since 1997, is leaving his post at the end of the year.

Bennett will lead lobbying efforts for the American Association of Retired Persons in Oregon.

KLAS-TV, Channel 8 reporter Jon Summers will move from the small screen to screening access and news for the Nevada Democratic Party.

Summers, who started at Channel 8 in 1999, will start his new job as communications director for the Democrats on Dec. 1.

Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault and Review-Journal writer Michael Squires contributed to this report.