Why Al Gore Shouldn't Sweat Over Latest Leak

Al Gore tried to act surprised Thursday when reporters rushed him with news that one more Justice Department official wants Janet Reno to appoint a special counsel to investigate Gore's 1996 fund-raising zeal. He shouldn't have bothered — a yawn would have been a more genuine response. Sure, the barking is a little louder this time, because Gore is getting closer and closer to November and Reno is getting lonelier and lonelier in her refusal to farm out her investigation to an outside office. But by now, Gore knows the baying of these hounds all too well.

Version 3.0 of will-she-or-won't-she originates from a confrontational April grilling of Gore by Justice investigators over familiar ground — the Buddhist temple, the coffees, the fund-raising calls, the iced-tea defense. Gore, sources said, got defensive and angry, and prosecutors (including the whistleblower this time, Justice's campaign finance division head Robert Conrad) came away more suspicious than ever. They told Reno so. Someone at Justice (apparently not Conrad) decided to leak it to Republicans on the Hill, and Arlen Specter saw fit to tell the world.

The drill is familiar: Republicans call for Reno to appoint special counsel or resign, and pray daily that the issue sticks with the voters. The meat-starved political press says things like this "could not come at a worse time for Mr. Gore," (New York Times) ignoring the obvious fact that September, say, would be a far worse time. Failing an about-face by Reno, it'll be up to George W. Bush to do what Specter and the Republicans haven't been able to — keep the issue on the electoral radar until it really matters.

Will Reno pull the trigger this time? TIME Washington correspondent Viveca Novak weighs in:

"It's really unpredictable whether Reno will relent this time. There's no new evidence, no smoking gun — this is just a building of the pressure she's been under since 1996, with Conrad's voice added to all the others. On the one hand, she's facing a huge amount of criticism from Republicans and some others to finally appoint an outside counsel.

On the other hand she, maybe more than anybody in politics we've ever seen, is impervious to political pressure."