ASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats, who last week had virtually written off the possibility that Vice President Al Gore could become president, are displaying a new, if flickering, optimism that the Democratic candidate might prevail.
Many in Gore's party were cringing last week as they watched the vice president aggressively contest the results. Some worried that a protracted legal fight could end up tainting the party as litigious, or as a group of poor losers.
But buoyed by voter polls and a visit by Gore campaign chairman William Daley yesterday, Democrats are now backing the vice president in his fight for a manual recount, a tally they say may well prove Gore the winner.
''I've felt it in the last couple of days,'' said Representative Martin T. Meehan, Democrat of Lowell, of the growing Democratic confidence.
''Today, the idea is, what's wrong with just counting all the ballots in the state, and we'll all abide by'' the result, said Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont. ''Shouldn't we at least be able to show the country they got who they voted for?''
The fresh optimism makes it less likely that a Democratic posse will approach Gore anytime soon to implore him to concede for the good of the country or the dignity of the party. Instead, Gore's colleagues on the Hill are arguing with renewed energy that it is George W. Bush who is misbehaving by trying to thwart a meticulous, manual recount.
Republicans, frustrated that Bush has not yet been declared the winner, got their own lift yesterday when a Florida judge ruled that the secretary of state of Florida may be able to enforce the deadline of 5 p.m. yesterday that she set for the official tally.
But the GOP members in Congress, in contrast to the Bush campaign, do not consider a Republican win a sure thing.
''The mood was somber'' at the Senate Republicans' policy luncheon yesterday, said Senator Robert Smith, Republican of New Hampshire. ''Everyone is in shock. No one knows what to do.
''I think we all look bad,'' Smith said. ''We look like we're exercising political one-upsmanship. I don't think it looks good.''
House Republicans, meeting yesterday to renominate J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois as their candidate for House speaker, were pleased that they held onto the majority there, said Hastert aide Pete Jeffries.
But ''the celebratory atmosphere definitely has a cloud hanging over it,'' he said.
Senate Republicans feel ''a cautious presumption, I guess,'' that Bush will sit in the Oval Office next year, said Senator James Jeffords, Republican of Vermont.
With the result of the presidential race still up in the air, Congress is putting off votes on the major legislation, including the 2001 budget, until Dec. 5. Neither party feels capable of negotiating effectively without knowing what kind of White House they will face next year, members and staff said.
Immediately after the election, Bush was winning the public relations game, said Michael Meehan, an aide to Senate minority leader Tom Daschle. It appeared that the Texas governor had won by a slim margin and that Gore was refusing to accept the inevitable.
Two prominent members of Gore's party, Senators Robert Toricelli of New Jersey and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, publicly suggested that he avoid dragging out the decision with a long court battle.
''The bottom line is, what is Bush afraid of, if there's a recount? That the will of the people will be exercised?'' asked Representative Eliot Engel, Democrat of New York.
Democrats were also angered over the weekend by what Engel called ''arrogance to the nth degree'' by the Bush camp. Assembling a Cabinet and acting as if he's the president-elect was ''really tasteless,'' Engel said.
Polls showing that Americans didn't mind a recount - though they don't favor a new election - made Democrats more comfortable with the Gore challenge, Representative Meehan said. He cautioned, however, that a shift in the public's mood could tranform the atmosphere in the Democratic caucus.
''Everyone's going to be looking at the polls,'' Meehan said. ''Right now, people have patience with it. But once people lose their patience, [the campaigns] are going to have a problem.''
