More candidate lies about Yucca

By the time fall arrives, John McCain might even backtrack from his signature campaign finance legislation.

Yet somehow -- and unbelievably -- McCain's flip-flopping has yet to ratchet up to the same level of John Kerry's "I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it."

McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts before they became the solitary plank in his new domestic economic plan. And the Arizona senator was as skeptical as any in D.C. about the human impact of global warming before he needed an endorsement from California's Governator.

And now McCain is signaling he wants to win states that the Bush administration's incompetence has turned purple.

In a sop to independent voters in Nevada, the ardent Yucca Mountain supporter actually said Tuesday that "it is even possible that ... an international (nuclear repository) could make it unnecessary to open the proposed spent fuel storage facility at Yucca Mountain."

McCain said this during a speech in Denver, twice interrupted by protesters calling for an end to the war. He called the protesters his friends and plodded on through his "anti-proliferation" speech, which actually calls for new nukes.

From one end of his elastic jowls he suggested an end to nuclear testing; from the other he envisioned new weaponry to offset the threat of terrorism. Sounds like he advocates creating new nuclear waste.

McCain then went on to suggest that an international repository might be established to store spent nuclear fuel. And if you believe him, I've some fertile soil in Siberia to sell you.

Yup, that's the site of his proposed international dump. Wonder who McCain will sit down with to negotiate that one? The Chechen rebels or Putin?

You can tell Nevada has become a focal point in the frenetic general election when national politicians start making hay out of an issue Nevadans largely ignore.

McCain's record speaks much louder than his detail-lacking political proposal to create a new dump far, far away.

Since American senators were never quite convinced that shipping 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste by rail and road near schools and urban areas represented a danger, McCain must think it's going to be easy to haul the stuff overseas.

Just imagine the standoff somewhere -- maybe the Barents Sea -- between the barge and Greenpeace.

McCain is just the latest in a laundry list of would-be presidents who have spent much of their careers trying to screw us on this issue. The most classic flip-flop on Yucca came from Howard Dean in 2004. "I have seen the light" he pronounced.

Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards had even voted for the dump.

Democrats have largely hidden behind President Bill Clinton's decision to veto interim storage at the site. But even Clinton's veto was never intended to kill the overall project. He merely didn't think interim storage was safe.

McCain has crisscrossed the country advocating the construction of new nuclear plants. But a key reason the industry can't build new reactors is that Yucca is either way behind schedule or dead. The industry can't solve the waste problem without adding more waste to the mix.

There are varying degrees of Yucca support on the campaign trail. Back during the Republican primary, candidates from Ron Paul to Mitt Romney to Rudy Giuliani mouthed the sound science, states' rights comments on Yucca. McCain stridently stayed his course as an ardent proponent. Then he came here to raise money and found the "sound science" line.

McCain has these kinds of awakenings, but suggesting a nuclear waste dump be sited in Siberia is a stretch -- even for him. Perhaps his next "policy" proposal will be an international institute for online wagering on amateur sports.

Oh wait, McCain is against internet wagering, too. Well, by October, he's bound to have gotten around that belief.

And just how long will he hold out on proposals for boxing reform? After all, Don King did go out on the stump for George W. Bush in 2004, and even taped an anti-Kerry ad.

Only in America, indeed.

Will McCain decide it's more helpful to his chances to have a black boxing promoter trash Barack Obama than it is to continue his crusade to reform the sweet science?

By the time November rolls around, the septuagenarian might be caught confusing his "sound science" with his "sweet science" -- sort of like how he repeatedly can't seem to get a handle on the Shia-Sunni thing.

We may not need Yucca Mountain. But what Nevada also doesn't need is another presidential candidate who lies to us about Yucca Mountain.

Contact Erin Neff at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.