Nevada Senator Supports Bipartisanship--In Theory

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid urged bipartisanship in a speech Friday to Nevada lawmakers--but later criticized President Bush’s pick for attorney general, John Ashcroft.

The Democratic minority whip in the U.S. Senate told the Democrat-controlled state Assembly and GOP-run state Senate that cooperation always has figured in Nevada’s ability to deal with crises.

Reid also said he and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., are working together despite their hard-fought election battle in 1998. Reid narrowly defeated Ensign, who then won the Senate seat that Democrat Richard Bryan gave up last year.

But Reid was more critical afterward at a news conference when he was asked about Ashcroft, a conservative Republican confirmed a week ago on a 58-42 Senate vote--the narrowest margin ever for an attorney general. Reid voted against him.

Reid said he hopes Ashcroft will do a good job but said the former Missouri senator has promoted strongly conservative views and has been “a divider, not a uniter.”

“I don’t know how he can turn it off now,” Reid added.

Reid also said the Nevada Legislature has a big job ahead in making sure California’s electric power deregulation disaster doesn’t repeat itself here.

“Nevada is the neon capital of the world . . . and we need to make sure that we have enough affordable power to keep our state growing--and our neon glowing,” he said.

While Reid wouldn’t take a position on whether Nevada’s utilities should be barred from selling their power plants, he said it was a mistake for California to allow it. He called for more development of alternative energy sources.

Reid also said:

* The president’s choice of Gale Norton as interior secretary didn’t concern him as much as Ashcroft’s appointment. Reid, who voted to confirm Norton, described the former Colorado attorney general as highly intelligent and not likely to “mess with me.”

* The drive to locate a high-level nuclear waste dump at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain seems to be on hold.

* Education improvements are a must for Nevada lawmakers and for Congress. He said the state has one of the highest dropout rates in the nation and, despite long efforts to get more teachers into classrooms, has the nation’s fifth worst student-teacher ratio.