Grading lawmakers

The Review-Journal's anonymous "grade the legislators" survey, conducted after each regular session of the Legislature, has all the suspense of a homecoming ballot. Like the ever-popular jocks and princesses, lawmakers who embrace process and bigger government get the crowns. Like the geeks and burnouts, no one who favors principle and smaller government will fare well ... or even be asked to dance.

The poll surveyed legislators, lobbyists and journalists. Of the 130 surveys distributed, 40 were returned.

For the sixth straight legislative session, Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, was named best Assembly member. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, was named best senator. Ms. Buckley, as speaker, and Sen. Raggio, the upper chamber's minority leader, ushered $1 billion worth of tax increases through both houses twice -- once to pass them, once to override Gov. Jim Gibbons' veto.

Meanwhile, three of the worst five senators (as judged by the survey) voted against the tax increases, as did the five worst Assembly members. The five best senators and five best assembly members all voted for the tax increases. And Gov. Gibbons was, predictably, given an "F" for not wavering from his opposition to tax increases.

Admittedly, the poll's results might have been different if the surveys were extended to business owners or a handful of the tens of thousands of Nevadans who've lost jobs over the past year and can't line up new work. After all, the Legislature's lauded tax increases -- especially the doubling of the modified business tax -- will discourage business owners from increasing their payrolls or creating new jobs.

But surveying the Capitol's political, policy and pundit cliques is instructive in just how incestuous Carson City has become. These folks would never embrace anyone who questions why government always needs more of your money, or someone who insists that for every new bill that's passed, two statutes must be taken off the books. Such absolutists and obstructionists get in the way of "finding solutions," we're told -- even if the solutions might do more harm than good.

Those who "get something done," even if it involves bullying, threatening, betraying campaign promises and ignoring home-district constitutents, become heroes.

Funny thing about popularity contests, though: The folks who win them never seem to look quite as good 10 or 20 years down the line.