ASHINGTON - If next week's final tally in Florida shows that George W. Bush has won the presidency, Al Gore will face the most difficult decision of his political career: Does the man famous for the phrase ''no controlling legal authority'' want to add to that reputation by challenging the legality of the election?
For now, the Gore camp is taking a tough stance, saying it may back lawsuits brought by voters seeking to challenge the Florida results. But some Democrats are wondering whether a protracted legal fight, even if his prospects for winning were good, might not damage his image beyond repair.
Democratic allies on Capitol Hill are publicly urging Gore to be cautious. ''I'd advise we exhaust all other remedies before we attempt any consideration of a court challenge,'' Senate minority leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said yesterday.
Senator Robert Torricelli warned that it ''would be a downward spiral'' if the Gore campaign were to go to court. ''It may begin in Florida but it can go to other states, and ultimately the presidency of the United States should not be decided by a judge,'' Torricelli, Democrat of New Jersey, told reporters.
Former US senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, who unsuccessfully challenged Gore for the Democratic nomination, also issued a warning to the vice president. ''If you appear as a sore loser and draw this thing out, ... you won't have a political future,'' Bradley said in comments to reporters in North Carolina.
The editorial pages of a number of leading newspapers, including some that had strongly supported Gore's campaign, also called upon the vice president to drop the idea of legal action. The Bush campaign is using similar statements to try to pressure Gore to abandon the threat of a legal challenge. Former US secretary of state James A. Baker III, who is monitoring the recount for Bush, said yesterday: ''Let the country step back for a minute and pause and think about what's at stake here. This may be the last chance to do that. There is no reasonable end to this process if it slips away.''
In using such rhetoric, the Bush camp may be placing all of its bets on the prospect that it will win the final tally next Friday. For if Gore is awarded Florida after the recounts are over and all the overseas absentee ballots counted, Bush would find it hard to explain the rationale for a legal challenge of his own, should he consider one. Then Bush, not Gore, would have to weigh the potentially damaging impact of an endgame based on lawyers and lawsuits.
So, as pressure mounts against litigation, there is increasing speculation that the election result could come down to the overseas ballots and a more detailed, manual recount of the automatic recount in four Florida counties, to be completed next week.
The Gore campaign says it recognizes the risk of a public backlash with a protracted legal battle, yet campaign chairman William Daley continued to indicate that the vice president might fight the results in court. ''This election is not over,'' Daley said yesterday. ''We want the true and accurate will of the people to prevail, and that means letting the legal system run its course.''
It appears that Gore will at least wait until a mandated statewide recount is completed next Tuesday, and the 2,900-odd overseas ballots are counted next Friday. It is then, if Bush is still ahead after the Florida vote has been certified as final by state officials, that Gore will have to decide whether to back a legal challenge.
For Gore, the upside of such a challenge is clear: He could win the White House. But there are plenty of downsides as well. He could be blamed for turning the election into a constitutional trauma that could leave the country rudderless. A Gore challenge probably would lead to a Republican effort to recount the results in several states won narrowly by the vice president, including Wisconsin, New Mexico, and Iowa, potentially changing the outcomes there. And if Gore lost the court fight he could hurt his chances to run again for president in 2004.
It is a sign of Gore's predicament that some Democrats are now holding up Richard M. Nixon as a role model for the vice president. In 1960, Nixon lost the presidency to John F. Kennedy by an even slimmer national margin than in the Bush-Gore race, although Kennedy had a much wider lead in the Electoral College. Despite widespread reports of voter fraud in Illinois, Nixon decided not to challenge the results.
But Theodore Sorenson, the former Kennedy aide and speechwriter, said in a telephone interview that Nixon's decision not to challenge the result is being misrepresented. Sorenson said that Nixon did not have a legal basis to challenge the outcome in Illinois, and noted that a reversal of the results there would not have given Nixon the presidency. If there had been a legal basis, and if Illinois electoral votes could have put Nixon over the top, Sorenson said, Nixon almost certainly would have challenged the result.
In the current situation, said Sorenson, Gore is right to consider a legal challenge because there do appear to be ''irregularities'' and the Florida vote will determine the winner.
''I'm in favor of Gore being gracious, but I'm also in favor of votes counting,'' he said. ''It is probably the most fundamental right we have under the Constitution.''
While the Gore campaign has received an outpouring of support from Democrats who say they are outraged at the confusing ballot in Palm Beach County, many people are bound to grow tired of the indecision after a while. The Bush campaign, at least, appears to be banking on that possibility.
For now, Democratic leaders said that the best thing to do is wait for the final Florida result, which is due on Nov. 17. House minority leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, asked at a press conference yesterday whether he shared the concerns of some in his party that a legal challenge could last too long, said: ''I don't think anyone is suffering from getting this done right. And in fact, I'd argue to you that we'd all suffer if we don't get it done right.''
But one concern among Democrats is that the legal process may go forward whether Gore wants it to or not. A number of lawsuits have been brought by voters.
Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.
