POLITICAL BRIEFING

GULF GAP: Some Democrats are concerned that the Persian Gulf crisis may further delay the already slow-starting race for the party’s 1992 presidential nomination.

The fear is that potential candidates may be hesitant about committing themselves to challenge President Bush until they know which he is--a war hero or the architect of a fiasco. “There were plenty of things that argued for delaying a decision, and this is one more,” said a top Democratic operative.

TERM LIMIT GAINS: The drive for a constitutional amendment to limit congressional terms is gaining by leaps and bounds, proponents claim.

The strategy is to get two-thirds of state legislatures to join the call for a constitutional convention to draft an amendment establishing a 12-year ceiling on service in both the Senate and House. “Congress won’t adopt a term-limit amendment unless somebody puts a gun to its head,” said political consultant David Freibert, a spokesman for Americans to Limit Congressional Terms.

Backers range from conservatives such as Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) to liberals such as consumer activist Ralph Nader. Fed by anti-incumbent fever, grass-roots organizations have sprung up in at least 22 states--California among them--over the past 12 months to lobby legislatures on behalf of the amendment.

TRIAL BALLOON: Politicians all over the country are under fire for taking contributions from Charles H. Keating Jr. and other executives implicated in the savings and loan scandal, but Montana Republicans have taken the partisan warfare over the issue to a new level.

Late last month, state Auditor Andrea Bennett, part of a GOP “truth squad,” attacked Democratic Sen. Max Baucus for taking $5,000 from a political action committee launched by California Sen. Alan Cranston, who is one of five senators under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee for allegedly using improper influence to help Keating.

“This is sort of a trial balloon to see how it goes over,” one GOP strategist said. Montana newspaper editorialists are out to puncture the balloon. One complained that the charges represented “guilt by assumed association with a person assumed guilty.”

JESSE’S GLIMPSE: Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) has unveiled a new visual aid in his campaign for reelection this November: He is showing voters pictures that he considers pornographic.

Having stirred a national controversy by his partially successful assault on funding by the National Endowment for the Arts for works that he deems obscene, the conservative lawmaker carried the fight into the hustings in his home state last month at a $10-a-head barbecue. He made available for inspection samples of sexually explicit works that had received NEA grants so people could see “what I’m talking about.”

But Helms, who is locked in a close race against Democrat Harvey Gannt in his bid for a fourth term, extended the viewing invitation only to male voters. Even then, he warned “you won’t want to look long because you just ate and you could get sick.”