White House to Seek Quick Vote on Tower : No Further Damage to Nominee Is Seen in New FBI Report

The White House, confident that the FBI report on John Tower’s personal activities that will be sent to the President today will show no evidence of wrongdoing, plans to push for a quick vote in the Senate on Tower’s nomination as secretary of defense.

Sources familiar with the Tower probe said White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu told Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) Saturday that the FBI report contained nothing more damaging than what already has been disclosed about Tower’s personal and financial affairs.

White House officials said Sunday that the Administration will launch a full-court press early this week to pry the Tower nomination out of the Senate Armed Services Committee and schedule a final floor vote, possibly by Friday.

To Seek Open Session

They also intend to ask the Senate panel to hold the remainder of its deliberations on the Tower nomination in open session, rather than behind closed doors, as suggested by the panel’s chairman, Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.).

Nunn had floated the idea of closed-door sessions as a way to enable committee members to speak more frankly on the issue--particularly if the FBI report now being compiled were to turn up any evidence of wrongdoing. Tower is a former senator from Texas.

But Administration officials said it now appears the report will merely corroborate earlier FBI investigations of Tower, and will not turn up any new evidence. As such, White House strategists say, holding the hearings in the open would help minimize rumor and innuendo.

The FBI is scheduled to complete its report late today and deliver it to White House ethics chief C. Boyden Gray, who is expected to send it to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, when the Senate returns from its 10-day recess.

Nunn Reserves Comment

Nunn and Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), the Armed Services Committee’s ranking minority member, have said that they plan to return to Washington today to make themselves available to discuss the report privately with the Administration. Nunn had no comment on the issue Sunday.

The new White House strategy was signaled Sunday by Dole, who argued on CBS’ “Face the Nation” program that multiple FBI investigations have produced “nothing that would disqualify” Tower, and he urged the committee to vote promptly.

He predicted that Tower “will be confirmed by a wide margin.”

A source close to the affair said that Dole called Sununu on Saturday to discuss the contents of the FBI report and to make sure he would not be embarrassed later if he pushed for the new strategy during his Sunday TV appearance.

According to the source, the conversation reportedly “was to give him (Dole) a heads-up, and to answer his questions about the report.”

The new FBI report on Tower is expected to focus on allegations about Tower’s activities as head of the U.S. delegation to the Geneva arms-control talks--specifically, that he may have slept with women on the delegation staff and that his behavior disrupted delegation business.

Such rumors so far have been unconfirmed.

Dole and Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.), who appeared on the same program, both dismissed suggestions that the panel hold a closed-door session on the Tower nomination.

“I don’t see a need for one--there’s no national security interest involved,” Dole said.

Says Senate’s Ready

Mitchell called the closed-session idea “premature.” He asserted that the Senate was “prepared to act promptly” as soon as the Armed Services Committee sends the nomination to the floor. Nunn had said he would leave the question of whether to hold a secret session up to Mitchell.

President Bush has continued to express full support for Tower, despite the firestorm that the nomination has sparked. On Sunday, Secretary of State James A. Baker III, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, said Bush told him Saturday he still “feels that way.”

Dole said that he had seen previous FBI reports on Tower and that “a close reading . . . gives no reason to disqualify” Tower. “We’re relying on rumors,” he said. “I think we ought to stop checking every rumor unless there’s some criminal activity. Let’s get on with the vote.

“The Pentagon is suffering because we don’t have a secretary of defense,” Dole said. “We’ve had a thorough examination of John Tower--the most exhaustive in history, I assume--and now it’s time to vote . . . . We need John Tower on board.”

Sees Need for Concern

At the same time, however, Mitchell insisted that reports about Tower’s drinking patterns were “a legitimate concern,” because of the need for a secretary of defense to make quick decisions in case of possible enemy attack.

Asked whether he thought Tower should withdraw his name from nomination, Mitchell sidestepped the question, saying only: “That’s a decision to be made by Mr. Tower and the President.” He said he personally had not made any judgment on Tower.

Separately, the White House denied a report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Bush Administration officials had talked to Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as secretary of defense in the Gerald R. Ford Administration, about taking the job if Tower failed to win Senate confirmation.

White House spokesman Steve Hart on Sunday said that “there have been no discussions with anybody but Tower about the position. “Tower is our candidate,” Hart declared.

Staff writers James Gerstenzang and Melissa Healy contributed to this story.