The Trouble with Tony

By Karen Tumulty And Viveca Novak

It sounded almost like the good old days on Al Gore's presidential campaign, with lots of dire talk about his opponent's risky schemes and secret plans, arrogant approaches and smug assumptions. Last week Gore managed to parlay what was to have been a simple health-care speech to medical reporters in Chicago into a dissertation on George W. Bush's coziness with the National Rifle Association. (A top N.R.A. official had been videotaped saying of Bush, "We'll have a President...where we work out of their office.") Gore also savaged the Texas Governor's Social Security plan with predictions that it could force waitresses to shoulder heavy trays until they are 70 years old, just "to finance some risky tax scheme."

Democrats should have been heartened to see their candidate in fighting trim. But with a new round of polls suggesting that Bush's return to sunny centrism is getting a surprisingly warm reception in at least half a dozen states that Democrats generally take for granted--such as Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin and even West Virginia--many in the party are worried about whether Gore's campaign team is ready for the general-election brawl. Renewed infighting and finger pointing have brought fresh doubts about the cadre that is taking over the national campaign machinery--doubts largely centered on Gore campaign chairman Tony Coelho, a former California Congressman with a 20-year history of generating both intense loyalties and animosities. "It's not something you worry about," Coelho declared in an interview last week. "You've got decisions to make, and you make them. The campaign can't be run by 100 outsiders."

This is not the first time Coelho's management has been questioned. He transformed the Gore campaign several times last year, banishing longtime advisers, firing many members of the campaign high command. His brash style proved to have been right for the moment: Coelho helped hone a sloppy, unfocused operation into one that dispatched Bill Bradley with relative ease and brought the Vice President within striking distance of Bush in the national polls.

These days, though, Coelho's ratio of mishaps to successes seems to be on the rise. Consider the Elian Gonzalez matter. Although Gore had distanced himself from the Clinton Administration from the outset of the controversy by saying it should be handled in family court, sources say his top advisers--primarily Coelho, but with backing from message gurus Carter Eskew and Bob Shrum--urged him to take a higher profile by calling for permanent residency for the Cuban boy. Coelho was out front in arguing that the move would bolster Gore's chances of carrying Florida--the nation's fourth most populous state--and proving he was no retroliberal on foreign policy. Instead, the Coelho-led gambit was almost universally dismissed as pandering gone terribly wrong. Behind the scenes in Goreland, it was derided as more evidence of how campaign decision making under Coelho has become insular and, more important, often wrongheaded.

Meanwhile, serious legal trouble may be ahead for Coelho. Having left Capitol Hill more than a decade ago amid a brewing scandal involving an allegedly improper deal on a $100,000 junk bond (the Justice Department investigated but did not bring charges), Coelho faces legal problems on several fronts. A running State Department Inspector General's investigation of Coelho has entered a new and potentially more ominous phase, sources close to the probe tell TIME. At issue is the 57-year-old's service as head of the American mission to the 1998 World Exposition in Lisbon, Portugal, and whether or not Coelho abused government resources to promote a private foundation he started. Potential witnesses in the case, legal sources tell TIME, have been told to expect subpoenas, and the matter may soon be presented to a grand jury.

As if that weren't bad enough for Coelho, the Securities and Exchange Commission is continuing two investigations involving parts of the complicated, overlapping business empire--ranging from race horses to funeral homes to dotcoms--the Californian built after he left Congress. Recently, still another probe was started, this one an audit of the government's Census Monitoring Board, of which he was co-chairman, a post he resigned when he joined the Gore campaign. Coelho's attorney, noted Washington defense lawyer Stanley Brand, says his client has done nothing wrong. Brand says he has not heard from government investigators on any of these inquiries concerning Coelho for months (something that is not unusual for any target of an investigation).

As he has moved to take over Democratic Party machinery for the general-election campaign, Coelho has wounded more than a few egos. Among those, several sources say, is that of Democratic National Committee chairman Ed Rendell. Coelho has demanded changes in virtually every aspect of the DNC operation, from the souvenir pens it gives to donors (too expensive) to its travel budget (too lavish) to its fund raising (not enough). Rendell, a former Philadelphia mayor not exactly known as a softie, denies any serious friction. Still, he notes of Coelho, "occasionally he does things with a bulldozer when all he needed was a little charm." Coelho has also taken charge of planning for the Democrats' August convention--putting himself, his detractors say, in the position of dispensing favors ranging from desirable hotel rooms to coveted floor credentials. "He loves to put the chits in his pocket," says an official who has worked on the convention, which will be held in Los Angeles.

That may be because in this election, Coelho's future is on the line as well as Gore's. "It's about redemption," says a longtime political associate. That will only come if Gore gets to the White House. Right now, campaign officials say they are framing broad themes and specific issues to ensure that a President-elect Gore will put his hand on the Bible on Jan. 20--and that Coelho will be in the VIP seats nearby. But an insider echoes a common frustration inside the Gore campaign: "People want to know when are we going to get to the part where we're winning."