Kerry does whatever it takes to win

WASHINGTON — John Kerry recently stopped in Las Vegas to say: "Rest assured, Nevada. If I'm president, Yucca Mountain will not be a depository." Back to mind comes Chic Hecht, a one-term Republican senator elected in 1982, who said he opposed using Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as a nuclear waste "suppository."

Also to mind comes the French sovereign known as Henry of Navarre (1553-1610). More about him anon.

The problem of nuclear waste has been studied for 50 years. Twenty-two years ago Washington took responsibility for that waste — there are 49,000 metric tons of it — stored in 131 sites in the 39 states with nuclear power plants. Seventeen years ago Congress selected Nevada — the federal government owns 86 percent of the state — for the repository. Beginning in 2010, the waste is to be put 1,000 feet underground, on 1,000 feet of rock, in steel containers in 100 miles of storage tunnels within the mountain.

But in 1996 President Bill Clinton promised to veto any attempt to make Nevada even a temporary repository. That promise helped him beat Bob Dole there by just 4,730 votes, the smallest state margin that year.

In 2000 George W. Bush promised not to make Nevada a temporary repository but said "sound science" would guide him regarding establishing a permanent repository there. He beat Al Gore 50-46 (301,575 to 279,978). A switch of 10,799 votes would have made Gore president.

In 2002 Bush approved Yucca Mountain as the permanent site. Congress said Nevada's governor could veto the selection but that his veto could be overridden by majorities in both houses. He vetoed it; Congress overrode him.

By this protracted dance of democracy the interests of an American majority — 161 million live within 75 miles of today's storage sites — prevailed, respectfully, over the objections of an intense minority, the approximately 2 million people who live in southern Nevada. Kerry's willingness to overturn this accommodation reflects a cold, and factually correct, calculation having nothing to do with the national interest: for the intense and compact Nevada minority, unlike for the diffuse American majority, this is a vote-determining issue.

Kerry's message to Nevadans — essentially, "I feel your hypothetical pain" — testifies to his readiness to do whatever it takes to win. As does his vow last week that, if elected, he would renegotiate the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).