PRESIDENT GORE?

...Former New York congressman Tom Downey, for instance, is invariably described in news accounts as among Gore's closest personal confi-dants—a description Downey himself apparently finds strange...

...He's very uncomfortable talking about it...

...Now there is the Starr report...

...Within the next year, people will start to leave on their own...

...Maybe if Gray Davis wins in California, Gore will pick him...

...Gore is more interested in foreign policy, more inclined to use military force...

...Treasury secretary Robert Rubin is rumored to be on his way out already, to be replaced perhaps by Jim Johnson, departing head of Fannie Mae...

...Dick Gephardt might be a good choice, says one Gore adviser: "He brings you labor, he brings you the Midwest, there are no ethical problems...

...The most often asked question, needless to say, is, Who will be the Veep's veep...

...Gore made it clear to me that his relationship with the president was the currency of the realm," says someone who worked for the vice president...

...if Gore were to become president, says someone who has helped form his positions, "you'd see a tougher foreign policy...

...Gore is famously uncomfortable with other people, and even after a lifetime in politics, he has a notably short list of FOAs...

...So, Carville was asked the day after the report arrived, who do you think will be in the Gore administration...

...Afla-ble former congressman Bill Richardson, whose name is also mentioned as a possible vice-presidential candidate, seems equally unlikely...

...Successful real-estate people can't withstand the scrutiny of daylight...

...Not that I've offered to come pack his books" —an offer that may come soon enough...

...If Madeleine Albright remained secretary of state" during a Gore administration, says one, "she'd be even more symbolic and flatulent than she is now...

...Much as Feinstein might help Gore in California in 2000, the adviser points out, "her husband is a real-estate person...

...I've told him," says a Democratic operative, "'If you're going to win, you've got to expand your circle.'" So far, Gore has ignored the advice, and if he becomes president at least some of his choices for senior staff will be predictable...

...For the moment, Gore himself isn't shedding any light on the matter...

...Gore takes pains to be present in the White House when Clinton is there, and for years his staff has arranged his schedule around his weekly lunch with the president...

...If you try to raise it he cuts you off...

...I can't tell you how many times we took the red-eye back from the West Coast so he could be at that lunch," says an aide...

...Hunger would certainly become the consigliere, which he sort of is now," says a Gore watcher...

...As for Janet Reno, says someone who works for Gore, "now that she's investigating him, she's got the safest job in town...

...what is surprising is how willing some Gore advisers have been to speculate (provided they're not identified by name) about what will happen if Gore becomes president before the year 2000...

...Nor, says another Gore aide, could he afford to: "There are a lot of politics behind the cabinet...

...Gore's ingrained, reflexive partisanship probably accounts for much of this...

...For four years I was with [Gore] as much as anyone," says a recently departed aide, "and i never heard him say a thing about what he really thought of Clinton, even when i asked him leading questions...

...It's easy to predict the names in a Gore administration because there aren't many of them to choose from...

...Then, last week, Ken starr submitted his report on the Lewinsky investigation to Capitol Hill and the normally talkative consultant seemed to run out of things to say...

...If I'm one of his best friends," Downey told a Gore aide a few years ago, "it doesn't say much about him...

...Larry Harrington, a former aide to Gore on Capitol Hill and the deputy manager of his 1988 presidential bid, is a strong bet for White House political director...

...Most other high-level Clinton appointees would be safe in the first months of a Gore administration...

...Frank Hunger, meanwhile, an official at the Justice Department who was married to Gore's late sister Nancy, could become the new Bruce Lindsey...

...Maybe not...

...A number of advisers claim Gore is also dissatisfied with the ineffectual performance of Madeleine Albright...

...Instead, he'd likely bring in a more hawkish national security adviser—or at least fire the present one...

...I've seen eye-rolling...

...The only problem: He and Gore have had "hatred" for each other since the 1988 campaign...

...Tucker Carlson is a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...

...You're not going to [replace commerce secretary william] Daley because of Chicago, [energy secretary Bill] Richardson just got there, and you don't knock off Madeleine [Albright] because you don't want to offend the women's groups...

...Gore has been criticized by Democratic strategists, fundraisers, and campaign consultants for refusing to enlarge the tiny group of longtime advisers who surround him, few of whom directly challenge his judgment...

...Call somebody else," he said...

...Not only does Richardson come from an electorally insignificant state—New Mexico—there's the problem of his infamous career-planning breakfast with Monica Lewinsky at the Watergate...

...Gore is said to be particularly dismayed by the administration's decision to suspend vigorous inspections of iraqi chemical-weapons sites...

...Just last week, Clinton remarked to a friend how pleased he has been by the vice president's enthusiastic professions of loyalty, and he has reason to be...

...Still, there is evidence of hairline cracks in the Clinton-Gore relationship, beginning with their views on foreign policy...

...Nothing...

...Conventional wisdom puts Sen...

...During his years in the Senate, Gore often boasted of his extensive knowledge of world affairs, and he is widely thought to be unimpressed with Clinton's scattershot, inattentive, and weak foreign policy...

...Carville didn't even muster a dismissive chortle...

...The subject of Clinton's resignation, says a friend of Gore's, has long been taboo around the vice president...

...For the past six years, Gore has understood that his power comes from his close relationship with Clinton...

...Dianne Feinstein at the top of the list, but hardly anyone who actually knows Gore considers her a likely choice...

...I doubt he'd go out willy-nilly firing cabinet members...

...when Clinton is forced to leave office prematurely, says someone who knows the vice president, "it's going to be such a traumatic event, it will reinforce Gore's native caution...

...Nonsense," says one of the vice president's oldest advisers...

...Gore is famous for his loyalty to Clinton and for his refusal, even in private, to criticize his boss...

...Fearful of criticism from organized feminists (who pushed Clinton into appointing Albright over George Mitchell in the first place), Gore probably wouldn't go looking for a new secretary of state...

...There's a vast gap between Sandy Berg-er's view of the world and his," says a Gore intimate...

...Simple political calculation probably accounts for the rest...

...You have to interpret the rolling of the eyes," says a close friend who has talked to Gore about the subject recently...

...Former chiefs of staff Peter Knight, Jack Quinn, and Roy Neel are sure to be asked to return (Neel as presidential chief of staff), as is Elaine Kamarck, a former Newsday columnist and Progressive Policy Institute fellow who spent five years as Gore's social-policy adviser...

...Carville is a Clinton partisan, so his unwillingness to talk about the possible aftermath of the president's impeachment or resignation is not surprising...

...Within the White House, President Gore's staff would likely include a number of familiar names...

...Since January, Gore has been more supportive of Clinton in public than Clinton's own wife...

...I think he's only dated one woman in his life...