Some say potatoes.(Al Gore's political activity)

NEW YORK, JANUARY 17

INSIDERS passed on the word that former vice president Al Gore would not go so far as actually to call for the impeachment of George Bush, and indeed he did not. The crowd at Constitution Hall was disappointed. But they were left with a great deal to chew on. Mr. Gore all but gave the impression that impeachment itself is simply a constitutional formality, necessarily ensuing upon such behavior as the president is clearly guilty of. Congress, said Mr. Gore, should hold hearings into "serious allegations of criminal behavior on the part of the president, and they should follow the evidence wherever it leads." Yes, the chief executive has inherent powers to act in national crises, but the president has crossed the line into criminal acts, "breaking the law repeatedly and persistently," bringing "our republic to the brink of a dangerous breach in the fabric of our Constitution."

Well, is he or is he not? We have heard, coming from the lips of one of the senior Democrats in the land, the direct charge that the president may be engaging in criminal behavior.

How is the uncommitted voter to react? Those who are sophisticated in weighing the questions at hand know that it is not easy to objectify the limits of executive power, and Mr. Bush has pretty well settled for telling us that the measures he has undertaken fall within his competence "to use all necessary and appropriate force against those ... persons" he believes might have been, or might in the future be, engaged in terrorist aggression. Not easy to prove, abuse, yet some abuse is inevitable given what the NSA and the FBI have been asked to do. That is, to examine conversations and written exchanges which, compositely, could transmute into a powder-keg airplane heading at top speed into the Capitol.

Mr. Gore is appealing to voters who are prepared to believe that abuse is written into Mr. Bush's interpretation of his authority, and that that would be revealed if an investigation got to the bottom of what is now going on.