ASHINGTON - After courting labor bosses and traditional liberal Democrats for days, Vice President Al Gore told a leading group of moderates yesterday that he will help ''bring our party together.''
His address to the Democratic Leadership Council focused on globalization and trade, issues that often drive a wedge between the party's liberals and moderates.
''We need to make trade work for working families,'' he told the Leadership Council which has helped the Clinton administration push free-trade agreements over union objections.
In words meant as a salve to both sides in the trade dispute, Gore said, ''I strongly believe that our president needs authority to reach new trade agreements to open new markets to our goods and services. But as president, with your help, I also will insist on workers' rights ... and human rights.''
That caveat, aimed at appeasing labor, also was part of Gore's acceptance speech Wednesday to the AFL-CIO, the powerful labor group that endorsed him over rival Bill Bradley.
Gore supporters viewed the back-to-back addresses as an example of how he can unite the party's two wings. ''He is the one candidate who can build bridges and maintain them across the full range of our party and our country,'' said Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat from Connecticut.
Before picking up the union nod, Gore and Bradley had faced off twice before separate audiences of Democratic activists. Both times, Gore sharpened his attacks on Bradley, insinuating that the former New Jersey senator is not a loyal Democrat.
Both rivals, in appeals to core primary voters, have promised expensive, new government programs to improve education and health care. Their battle on the left could leave Democrats exposed in the general election, Leadership Council members said.
Al From, director of the council, said in an interview that Republican front-runner George W. Bush could take advantage of his lead and begin moving to the political middle, the home of most swing voters.
Indeed, Bush has taken small steps in that direction, attacking Congress on its budget plans and accusing Republicans of being too negative.
''We can't concede any territory to Bush,'' From said. ''We created it. We developed the policies. We, not Bush, should push the centrist agenda into the 21st century.''
The worst-case scenario for Democrats is a long, costly nomination battle that leaves the nominee broke and easily cast as a liberal by a well-funded GOP nominee who has been courting moderate voters for months.
From said Bush, despite his talk, has not developed a centrist agenda, which Bill Clinton did during his 1992 presidential campaign.
From said he had no doubt that Gore and Bradley are moderate enough to beat Bush. Both are firm centrists on trade, taxes, and a host of other issues, with Bradley's opposition to welfare reform being the sole exception, he said.
''I don't think we're in any danger that the party will go back'' to its liberal ways, From said.
The union endorsement was important to Gore, but the vice president doesn't have to bow to every labor leader's demand in 2000, From said
''You want their support. You want their money. You want their organization. But in the end you have to push beyond labor,'' he said. ''It looks like on the surface that all the chits are in labor's hands, but that's not true. Labor has to reverse some tough trends in the economy - so Gore has leverage over them.''
