Will Reid learn lesson of Daschle?

To the editor:

Since moving to Nevada in 1991, I've been a Democrat. But right now, I'm a very unhappy Democrat. It's hard to be happy while I'm paying $4 a gallon -- about $80 a tankful -- for gasoline. Yet instead of doing something, such as authorizing the drilling for oil in the United States, the Democratic majority under our own Sen. Harry Reid is playing political games at my expense.

The last time the Democrats controlled the U.S. Senate, Tom Daschle was majority leader. But instead of representing the voters of South Dakota, Sen. Daschle chose to represent the far-left, hyper-partisan wing of the Democratic Party. While still majority leader, he found out the hard way that voters thought he'd been elected to represent the citizens of South Dakota, not the national party. Though Sen. Daschle was in a superb position to "bring home the pork," South Dakota's electorate -- far more centrist than the national Democratic Party -- voted the majority leader out of office.

Fast forward to today. The Democrats once again control the U.S. Senate, and they once again have a majority leader from a moderate state: Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada. Like Sen. Daschle before him, Sen. Reid has made the decision to represent not his home-state citizens, but the MoveOn.Org/Huffington Post/George Soros wing of the party.

In doing so, Sen. Reid has led the fight to block oil exploration and drilling in America, despite the wishes of Nevadans to once again have affordable fuel. While leading the fight against the Republican minority by playing politics instead of being a leader, Sen. Reid has done nothing to turn around the crushing cost of gasoline for his constituents.

Sen. Reid comes up for re-election in 2010, and I wonder if history is going to repeat itself. I wonder if Sen. Reid will be "Daschled" right out of office for representing the national party and failing to represent his own Nevada constituents.

This year's election seems to be all about "change," and the change I want to see is either a change in Sen. Reid's attitude -- one leading to lower gas prices -- or a change of senators in 2010.

Ned Barnett

LAS VEGAS

Open the interchange

To the editor:

I'd like to commend the Review-Journal editorial board on its Sunday stand regarding the unopened Lake Mead Boulevard-Las Vegas Beltway interchange. Your position reflects the majority opinion here in Sun City Summerlin.

On Oct. 28, 1999, Clark County held a public information meeting on the Western Las Vegas Beltway at the Desert Vista Community Center in Sun City. This was the only public meeting at which comments were ever solicited. There were several hundred residents in attendance. Sixty-eight of them responded as follows: 51 percent were in favor of the interchange, 21 percent were against, and 28 percent declared no opinion.

The sample was small, perhaps 20 to 25 percent of those in attendance, and a very small percentage of the 13,000 folks who live here. However, the event was well-advertised, and if lots of folks were upset with the interchange, they could have attended.

I believe the "silent" faction can be interpreted as being in favor because they didn't offer comments in opposition, which leads me to believe that nearly 70 percent of our residents favored opening the interchange as soon as possible, and probably still do.

The continued closure of the interchange represents a minority opinion presented to former County Commissioner Lance Malone. Malone pandered to a noisy minority, a group that called itself SCRUBIT.

Current Commissioner Chip Maxfield appears to have perpetuated this closure in spite of Clark County's evidence to the contrary.

Frank Beers

LAS VEGAS

Safe, clean drilling

To the editor:

I have been hauling crude oil from wells throughout Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to pipelines and refineries for a year. I have never worked with a more professional and safety-conscious industry in my life.

From the sinking of the well to the hauling of the petroleum products, protecting the environment is the number one concern of everyone.

I would like to take Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada for a ride as I drive up an access road to a well site on a Colorado mesa. We would stop for the occasional cow and pass herds of deer concerned only with grazing. While loading, we could see an eagle circling overhead or spot a curious mountain lion. There is no more pristine area than the western slope of the Rockies, and the successful combination of nature and industry is remarkable.

America should do everything possible to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. To allow drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one step in the right direction.

CLEMENT HARRIS

PAHRUMP