Dole, Mitchell Not Sure if Thomas Has Enough Votes : Senate: The GOP leader predicts a close confirmation tally Tuesday. He says it will be decided by 14 to 18 Democrats who initially backed court nominee.

As they watched the third day of hearings into allegations of sexual harassment by Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, the Senate’s top Democratic and Republican leaders said Sunday that they do not know whether Thomas has enough votes to be confirmed.

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), appearing on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley,” predicted that a confirmation vote scheduled for 3 p.m. PDT Tuesday will be “a very close call.” He said that it will be decided by a group of 14 to 18 Democrats who initially backed Thomas but then forced a vote delay last week so that hearings could be held into Oklahoma law professor Anita Faye Hill’s charges.

“I think we are gaining every day,” Dole said.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said on the same program that he had not made a head count nor discussed the hearings with colleagues. A former federal judge, he suggested that the Senate’s “jurors” wait for all the testimony and ignore a Washington Post-ABC Poll published Sunday, showing that 46% of those surveyed considered Thomas to be “the more believable witness” while 24% chose Hill.

“This (poll) is like making a judgment after the first two days of a trial. No one would ever think of doing that,” Mitchell said.

The senators were interviewed Sunday before hearings resumed on the harassment allegations.

A survey by The Times of pivotal Democratic senators found that nearly all wanted to withhold comment until the hearings end. An exception was Judiciary Committee member Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), who strongly suggested that he would remain in Thomas’ camp.

“You’d have to have a truly loaded gun that was uncontradicted,” he said, referring to Hill’s allegations. “I have not seen anything that would shake my confidence in being able to vote for Judge Thomas.”

Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.), an early supporter of Thomas, said through an aide that he had been attending events back home and had not seen much of the televised hearings.

“He wants to review the evidence dispassionately, although he thinks the burden of proof is on Prof. Hill,” said the aide, Tony Garrett.

Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kan.), one of two women in the Senate whose reaction to the hearings is being watched as a possible bellwether, said that she still leaned toward supporting Thomas after the first two days of hearings.

While she characterized Thomas and Hill as “two witnesses who feel strongly and have credibility,” Kassebaum questioned why Hill had followed Thomas from the Education Department to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after he allegedly had made unwelcome sexual advances and offensive remarks.

“The charges don’t quite match the actions,” she said.

However, Kassebaum said that her vote would depend on the strength of “further corroborating evidence,” the bulk of which was presented by four friends of Hill after Kassebaum spoke on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) said that her office had been flooded with telephone calls from women protesting harsh challenges of Hill by Judiciary Committee Republicans.

“They’re saying that this points out that (sexual harassment charges) are not taken seriously, that you yourself are then victimized by the process,” Mikulski said on the Brinkley program.