Bush Gives Sununu Mild Endorsement : Ethics: President doesn’t go out of his way to show support. Chief of staff says that he would not complete a full second term in White House post.

President Bush offered his embattled chief of staff, John H. Sununu, a lukewarm endorsement Monday, telling reporters, “Yeah, I’m going to support him,” as Sununu shrugged off the continuing controversy over his travel practices.

Also, Sununu indicated for the first time in public that he does not plan to hold his job for a full second term if Bush is reelected next year.

The White House counsel’s office, meanwhile, argued that the latest furor concerning Sununu’s travel--his personal solicitation of use of a corporate jet earlier this month--did not violate the 1989 Ethics Reform Act.

But Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee that drafted the legislation, said he was looking into the legality of Sununu’s actions.

At the center of the latest controversy is whether Sununu’s telephone call to Stuart Bernstein, a Washington real estate developer from whom he sought a private jet for a trip to a Chicago fund-raising event June 11, violated the law. The White House said Bernstein arranged to charter a plane for Sununu in response to the call.

The ethics law states that no federal employee shall “solicit or accept anything of value from a person seeking official action from, doing business with, or conducting activities regulated by the individual’s employing agency, or whose interests may be substantially affected by the performance . . . of the individual’s official duties.”

Sununu’s handling of his travel arrangements has brought recriminations within the White House’s normally harmonious senior staff, and Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater Monday did little to disguise his annoyance at having to offer a defense of the chief of staff.

Fitzwater, reading from a statement prepared by the office of White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, said Sununu “did not violate the relevant provision regarding solicitation, because the counsel’s office does not believe that Mr. Bernstein was a ‘prohibited source.’ The law only bars solicitation of gifts from prohibited sources.”

Bernstein leased the plane Sununu flew on from a group of businessmen that included Howard Bender, head of Blake Construction Co., a major federal contractor. Fitzwater did not comment on whether Bender would be considered a prohibited source under the law.

Bush made his comment about Sununu in response to shouted questions from reporters as he was leaving a Rose Garden ceremony. In the past, when aides have come under fire, he has gone out of his way to make a public display of his support. But no such steps were taken Monday.

Fitzwater said the White House saw no need for an independent review of its assessment of whether Sununu violated the ethics law. “As far as we’re concerned, there doesn’t appear to be anything more to deal with,” he said.

But Frank said Sununu’s action “does go beyond the appearance of impropriety.”

“What it does is put pressure on these people to go into the charter business,” he said. “They have a technical term for that: shakedown . . . I’m going to look into it.”

House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) and Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) indicated they were not prepared to accuse Sununu of wrongdoing.

“I think it’s a very unfortunate thing if people begin equating a mistake with a crime,” Mitchell said. And Foley said it would be up to the Administration to determine whether Sununu had violated any law.

Sununu, for his part, shrugged off the flap Monday as he walked to his chauffeur-driven Chrysler sedan--provided by the White House motor pool--after delivering a speech in Arlington, Va.

“Look, I’ve been in Washington for awhile now to realize that it’s all part of the process. It’s part of being chief of staff,” he said.

Asked if he would remain through Bush’s first term, which ends on Jan. 20, 1993, Sununu said, “I intend to get the President’s agenda done and help him get reelected and finish up after his second term begins.” He had not previously indicated that he planned to leave his job before Bush would have completed a second term. And Fitzwater said it was the first time he had heard such a comment by Sununu.

Until May 9, Sununu had been flying aboard Air Force jets, arguing that he needed the secure communications capability that they offered. When a new White House policy limited his use of the Air Force jets to official travel, rather than the political and personal trips for which he also had used them, he switched to corporate aircraft, which offer convenience, but lack secure communications equipment.