His White House Prospects Brightened, Gore Is ‘Very Pleased’

His political prospects perceptibly brightened, Vice President Al Gore welcomed the news Tuesday that no independent counsel will be named to investigate the legality of fund-raising calls he made from the White House.

“Now that there’s been a full and independent review, we can put this issue of the phone calls behind us once and for all,” a smiling Gore said in a reaction televised live by CNN from a school in Connecticut, where he was promoting after-school programs. “I’m very pleased by it.”

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno’s decision removed a substantial obstacle from Gore’s path as he gears up for an anticipated run for the nation’s top political office in 2000. Gore supporters’ worst nightmare was that an ongoing investigation by an independent counsel would make it impossible for him to emerge from the shadows of the fund-raising controversy as the presidential race intensified.

“It seems to me that his bacon is temporarily saved,” said Bill Frenzel, a former Republican member of Congress and a political analyst at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank. “If he had to begin what looks like a campaign for the nomination for president with a special counsel hanging around his neck, it would be a most awkward situation for him.”

Even though Reno was deciding whether to name special counsels to investigate allegations of improper calls by both President Clinton and Gore, the outcome was seen as much more pivotal for the vice president.

“The public has got a pretty clear vision of what they think of the president,” Frenzel said. “The vice president is less well known, so a special prosecutor would be much, much worse for Mr. Gore than Mr. Clinton. And besides, Mr. Clinton doesn’t have to run again.”

But while Gore talked about leaving the nagging allegations in the past, he and his advisors also made it clear that they expect the vice president’s GOP critics to keep mentioning his phone calls as part of their efforts to discredit him.

“The decision validates what the president and vice president have said all along on this: A careful and rigorous analysis of the facts and the law have now shown that they acted legally and appropriately,” said Paul Begala, a White House political advisor.

“However, there is no joy in Mudville because partisan attacks are not based on the facts--they are based on a really rabid partisanship,” he said.

Congressional Republicans responded angrily to Reno’s decision, but at least initially, the prime target of their wrath was the Justice Department.

Reacting to the news that FBI Director Louis J. Freeh had recommended to Reno that an independent counsel should be named to examine wide-ranging questions about fund-raising activities--rather than simply phone calls made from the White House--GOP lawmakers said they would call the two officials to Capitol Hill to explain their disagreement.

“At a time when we should be helping restore public confidence in federal law enforcement, this public spectacle of division between our chief law enforcement officers is a further blow to public confidence,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Other GOP lawmakers criticized Reno for focusing her decision so narrowly on the issue of fund-raising telephone calls by Clinton and Gore that she overlooked the bulk of the allegations of possible fund-raising improprieties.

“Her fixation on this one tree has caused her to lose sight of a whole forest of potential abuses,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.), a member of the Senate committee that recently wrapped up hearings on the controversy.

Some lawmakers said Reno’s decision may prompt them to fine-tune the independent counsel statute.

“When all the quibbling, lint-picking and fine distinctions are made, this matter all boils down to a loud and clear conflict of interest between the attorney general’s duty to the public to enforce the law and her personal loyalty to the president who elevated her to the top law enforcement post in the land,” said Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.