Controversial Vote May Have a Ripple Effect : Congress: Emotional debate could lead to action on a civil rights bill and a search for news leaks. Most see no lingering anger among senators.

The Senate’s agony over the confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court appears likely to have unexpected side effects, such as solidifying a strong congressional consensus for legislation to impose penalties for sexual harassment in the workplace.

On a related front, the furor over the leak of an FBI report on Anita Faye Hill’s harassment allegations against Thomas has triggered a renewed effort to plug news leaks of damaging information by senators and their aides.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said that he would try to find out how the FBI document was made public and, at the same time, look into leaks from a recent Senate Ethics Committee investigation that targeted Democratic senators.

But even as the cross-charges of smears and mudslinging were echoing in the Senate chamber, Senate leaders predicted that there would be no lingering bitterness that would prevent the Senate from restoring its traditional comity.

The strong reverberations from last weekend’s hearings into the alleged sexual harassment by Thomas--while not altering the outcome of the confirmation struggle--clearly have created momentum for legislative action to address workplace harassment, key senators said.

Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Ida.), one of the Senate’s most conservative members, even announced during the debate over Thomas that he had adopted a formal policy prohibiting sexual harassment in his office.

The first fallout from the nomination fight could be felt as early as this week, when the Senate may take up a long-stalled civil rights bill containing provisions that for the first time would allow women to sue employers and collect limited damages for sexual harassment.

“It’s made every man here (in the Senate) more concerned about sex harassment in the workplace,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a leading critic of Hill’s charges against Thomas. “From that standpoint, that’s very, very healthy for the country.”

At the liberal end of the ideological spectrum, the Rev. Jesse Jackson offered a similar assessment. “As a result of this newly raised national consciousness, the 1991 civil rights bill will be perceived as more necessary and, therefore, harder to veto,” Jackson said.

Ironically, both friends and foes of Thomas are expected to work together on a compromise civil rights measure sponsored by Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), the nominee’s principal Senate sponsor. Danforth’s bill has the support of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a leading opponent of Thomas’ confirmation.

At the height of the debate over the weekend, Danforth was said to have told some Democrats that they could forget about civil rights legislation if Thomas were defeated. Senate sources said that he later retracted his remarks and agreed to continue the search for a compromise bill that would attract the support to survive a presidential veto, which cannot be overridden without a two-thirds majority.

The Senate is sharply divided over key provisions of the bill dealing with legal remedies in job discrimination cases. President Bush and most Republicans have charged that the legislation would require employers to adopt racial quotas to avoid costly lawsuits.

Assuming that the Senate passes the legislation, it would then have to be reconciled with a House-approved measure that is more far-reaching than the Danforth compromise but also contains similar provisions concerning sexual harassment.

The fierce battle over Thomas produced sharp clashes between senators that were reminiscent of the 1989 struggle that led to the defeat of the late Sen. John Tower, President Bush’s first choice for secretary of defense, amid charges of drinking and womanizing.

While that first-ever defeat of a former senator for a Cabinet job generated hard feelings, the Senate soon returned to its familiar ways.

“We don’t hold onto animosities,” said Hatch, who has maintained a close friendship with Kennedy, his ideological opposite, on the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.

“The Senate is not going to fall apart over this vote,” said Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) as the showdown neared.