Water accord fine with Mulroy

Count Pat Mulroy among the Western officials taking issue with Republican presidential candidate John McCain's recent comments on the Colorado River Compact.

In an interview published Aug. 15, McCain told the Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain newspaper he thought the agreement that dictates how seven states including Nevada share the water of the Colorado River "needs to be renegotiated."

The statement kicked up a tempest, with Democrats and Republicans (but especially Democrats) in Colorado denouncing the idea of reopening the 1922 pact. McCain quickly reversed himself, but that didn't stop Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Sen. Ken Salazar and Rep. Mark Udall, all Democrats, from holding a news conference blasting McCain on Thursday.

Coloradans feared McCain was speaking for his home state, fast-growing Arizona, which might like to get a larger share of water out of the river than it currently does. Nevada, too, has grown at rates not envisioned by the agreement and could be expected to benefit from an altered allocation of the scarce resource.

But Mulroy, the much-feared general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said last week she, too, would resist reopening the river compact.

"The State of Nevada has benefited from working with our neighbors; renegotiating the Compact could put those gains at risk," Mulroy said in a statement. "As long as the Compact doesn't become an impediment to flexible and adaptive management of the Colorado River, there is absolutely no reason to renegotiate it."

In a letter to Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., after the comments had caused controversy, McCain last week asserted that his remarks "may have been mistakenly construed."

He added: "Let me be clear that I do not advocate renegotiation of the Compact. I support constructive, continuing cooperation and dialogue among the states and the water users in a manner that is fully consistent with the Compact."

In a discussion with Review-Journal staffers last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the original call for renegotiation "a typical McCain statement -- not knowing what he's talking about, because that is a lose-lose for everyone."

GETTING TO DENVER

The Democratic National Convention begins today in Denver, with a bit of drama courtesy of the hundreds of delegates who will arrive there pledged to Sen. Hillary Clinton rather than the presumptive -- but not yet official -- nominee, Sen. Barack Obama.

A roll-call vote, agreed upon by the Clinton and Obama camps to give Clinton supporters a voice in the proceedings, is scheduled to take place as a symbolic gesture.

Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, elected as a Clinton delegate with a passionate speech at the state Democratic convention in March, said before the deal was reached, she had sent a letter to the Clinton campaign urging the vote. Although Giunchigliani supports Obama now, she said she looks forward to casting her delegate vote for Clinton.

"I think this is a win-win in the long run because Obama is recognizing the overwhelming support that Hillary had," Giunchigliani said. "He doesn't dismiss those voices. He brings them into the fold, and then we can go forward to November."

Missing from the Nevada delegation will be state Sen. Dina Titus, who had been a superdelegate by virtue of her position as Democratic National Committee member. The state Democratic Party said last week Titus resigned that post and will be replaced at the convention by her successor, Erin Bilbray-Kohn.

Bilbray-Kohn was elected to the post at the state convention but wasn't scheduled to take over until after the convention.

Also not attending, according to the state party, is Teresa Benitez Thompson, the party's first vice chair and an Obama superdelegate.

She is on maternity leave, and because she is a superdelegate, her place can't be taken by an alternate, party spokeswoman Emilia Pablo said.

MAD ABOUT HARRY

Reid's discussion with Review-Journal staffers, referenced above, was the same one in which Reid said he had told fellow Sen. Joe Lieberman that he "can't stand John McCain," a comment that ricocheted around the Internet and talk radio, prompting a flood of commentary, much of it seeking to inform Reid that the feeling was likely mutual.

The tone of the comments brought to mind something the musical satirist Tom Lehrer once said: "I know there are people in the world who do not love their fellow human beings, and I HATE people like that."

The Republican National Committee was quick to weigh in.

"These despicable personal attacks against someone who's spent a lifetime putting his country before politics are exactly what you'd expect from Harry Reid and the Obama campaign," RNC spokesman Bill Riggs said in a statement.

"When John McCain stood alone to fight for the troop surge to achieve victory in Iraq, Harry Reid declared 'this war is lost' to score cheap political points with his liberal base. Reid's divisive rhetoric and self-serving attacks reveal that behind Barack Obama's promise for change is just the failed, old-style politics that earned Congress a 19 percent approval rating."

The RNC also seemed to accuse Reid of being insufficiently consistent in his disregard for McCain. A YouTube clip was circulated in which Reid, on the Senate floor, expressed admiration for McCain.

"I respect the senior senator from Arizona because he doesn't hide what he stands for in this," Reid said. "I admire him. He stands for what he thinks is the right thing to do."

THE FORGOTTEN GOVERNOR

Gov. Jim Gibbons let it be known last week that he was not among those invited Tuesday to Reid's big, fancy energy confab, the National Clean Energy Summit at UNLV.

Asked about the exclusion, Reid said it wasn't partisan, and seemed to take a dig at Gibbons in the process.

"I tried at the summit to bring in people that have shown an interest in renewable energy, not just talk," he said. "That's why I brought in (state Sen.) Randolph Townsend, a Republican. ... I brought in Gov. (Jon) Huntsman, a Republican from Utah, who's done an outstanding job on geothermal. ... We had plenty of Republicans there. That wasn't the reason."

Gibbons spokesman Ben Kieckhefer was not fond of Reid's implication. He noted that Gibbons, while in Congress, authored a revision of the Geothermal Steam Act and that he has been proactive in creating new transmission corridors, "so we can actually build renewable energy instead of talking about it, which Senator Reid seems to be doing a lot."

"If it's about action, he left out the big guy," Kieckhefer said. "Ultimately, it was Senator Reid's party. He could invite whoever he wanted."

But inviting Gibbons, who oversees the state's environmental and energy agencies, "may have been worthwhile," Kieckhefer said.

Review-Journal writer Henry Brean contributed to this report. Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.