Seymour Attains High Profile in Urging Probe : Politics: Freshman senator’s push for inquiry on who leaked Anita Hill’s allegations thrusts him into limelight. He’s cast both as a reformer and backer of Thomas.

At first blush, Sen. John Seymour would seem the least likely candidate to prod the U.S. Senate to order an investigation into which one of its own members may have leaked Anita Faye Hill’s controversial--and confidential--allegations of sexual harassment.

He is a freshman Republican who has not been elected yet; he was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Pete Wilson in January. As such, Seymour has a long way to go to establish himself on the Washington political scene, just as he remains an unknown quantity to many California voters.

Yet there he was on the Senate floor last week, introducing an amendment to authorize the FBI to investigate the leak. Then, after thrusting himself into the limelight, the freshman senator has inserted himself into the Republican leadership’s negotiations that led to a compromise plan to also investigate an alleged Republican leak in the so-called Keating Five hearings.

The Senate is scheduled to debate and vote today on the Seymour amendment as well as the alternative offered by Majority Leader George Mitchell (D.-S.D.). The Mitchell plan is expected to be approved.

In an interview late Wednesday, Seymour, who was clearly enjoying center stage, said he was pleased that he had prevailed in getting the Senate to confront the issue of an investigation. “By holding out and by hanging on like a bulldog, we’re able to force a vote on my amendment,” he said.

For Seymour, all the sudden attention cuts two ways on Capitol Hill: Some observers see him as a political opportunist who is using the Thomas-Hill controversy to make a name for himself with California voters before next year’s election.

“It’s a fascinating gambit,” said one California Democratic congressman, who asked not to be identified. “He has decided to try to raise his profile in going after leaks. (But) in doing so, he appears to have aligned himself as a more visible, up-front Thomas defender.”

Seymour, who voted to support the Thomas nomination, has acknowledged that he risked offending women voters.

Others, however, praise Seymour as a reform-minded newcomer who is trying to alter the way business is routinely conducted on Capitol Hill.

“He’s a breath of fresh air,” said Stan Cannon, press secretary to Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), who was one of Hill’s fierce interrogators on the Judiciary panel. “He’s not tied to the old-boy network. In many ways that helps him come at this problem without any concern except to get to the bottom of it.”

Asked if these efforts were part of a political strategy, Seymour said: “I’ve always believed that good public policy makes good politics. I believed on this particular matter from the beginning that this is good public policy.”

All this week, Seymour worked feverishly to gather 22 co-sponsors for his amendment. He also continued to push for an FBI inquiry even though experience argues against an investigation accomplishing anything. No government investigation has uncovered the sources of leaks, including several inquiries launched by the Reagan Adminstration.

Seymour sought to become the first senator to call for an FBI investigation in order to “remove the cloud” he said has been cast over Capitol Hill by the stormy Thomas hearings. Seymour’s fellow Republicans have accused Democratic senators or their aides on the Judiciary Committee of leaking Hill’s statement in a last-minute attempt to derail the Thomas confirmation.

“Everybody looks bad because of the reckless action that was taken when this document was leaked,” Seymour said. “It is unfair, it is unjust, it is unconscionable and it cannot be permitted to go on.”

On the Senate floor last Thursday--four days after the Thomas hearings ended--Seymour added his amendment to an unrelated federal facilities bill. The following day, he called a press conference in his office to publicize his efforts. Also attending the widely covered conference were Sens. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), the Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, and Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Dan Coats (R-Ind.).

Seymour’s proposal triggered a series of separate meetings by Republican and Democratic leaders, including some by Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) that included Seymour.

Democrats countered late Wednesday with a proposal to appoint a special outside counsel to conduct the investigation with the help of the FBI and to broaden the scope to include the leak in the Keating Five case by the Senate Ethics Committee. In that case, Democrats accused Republicans of leaking damaging information against five Democratic senators, including Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), for their association with Irvine Savings and Loan Assn. chairman Charles H. Keating Jr.

“Leak investigations are a waste of time,” said Daniel Schorr, a senior news analyst for National Public Radio who himself was the subject of the first congressional leak inquiry after the disclosure of confidential CIA testimony in 1976. “It’s all part of politics.”