Porter and McCain now share an office — may we suggest some Water Cooler talk?

Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain opened a new campaign office today with Jon Porter, giving Porter the opportunity he's been only talking about for years - to finally stand up to Republicans who support Yucca Mountain, instead of just complaining to the media about the dump.

Next time Porter and McCain are chatting around the water cooler at the office, we suggest that Porter pin down McCain on four pertinent questions regarding Yucca Mountain:

1.  In an interview on "Nevada Newsmakers," you said you would not support trucking nuclear waste through Phoenix. Don't you think it's hypocritical to support making Nevada the nation's nuclear waste dump with 77,000 tons of the deadliest substance known to man, yet opposing trucking that substance through your home state? [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPlaHQCKc34]

2.  Despite safety concerns, President Bush wants to double the amount of nuclear waste he ships to Yucca Mountain. Sen. McCain, do you agree with President Bush about doubling the amount of waste at the proposed Yucca dump, which is just 90 miles from the Las Vegas Strip?

3.  Sen. McCain, will you pledge to block any attempts to store nuclear waste on an interim basis at Yucca Mountain?

4.  You recently said you would support building 45 additional nuclear power plants in the United States.  Sen. McCain, where would you store this waste? Would you direct it to Yucca Mountain?

Porter has pledged before to convince Republicans to oppose Yucca Mountain - with little success. When he endorsed Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Review-Journal reported, "Porter, who opposes the project, said he didn't attempt to extract an anti-Yucca promise from Giuliani in exchange for his endorsement. But Porter said he would try to persuade Giuliani to oppose the dump." [Porter, Raggio support Giuliani" By Molly Ball; April 28, 2007]

"If Jon Porter really opposes Yucca Mountain, he needs to stand up to his new officemate, John McCain, and expose McCain's hypocrisy on this issue," said Kirsten Searer, deputy executive director of the Nevada Democratic Party. "But Porter doesn't want to do that - he just wants to earn headlines saying he is against the dump."