Bork is 'Licked' in Senate, Says Cranston

WASHINGTON-- The senator who counts votes for the Democrats says Robert H. Bork is "licked" as a Supreme Court nominee, but President Reagan and Bork aren't buying the prediction.

Senate Majority Whip Alan Cranston, D-Calif., told reporters Tuesday that his latest head-count shows 49 senators likely to oppose Bork, 40 likely to support him and 11 undecided.

"This reflects a loss of five potential votes for Bork since September 15," the day Bork's confirmation hearings began before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Cranston said. The hearings are expected to conclude today.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Tuesday that the administration had launched a new drive to woo votes. Bork has been meeting with individual senators and Reagan will be lobbying senators in person and on the telephone.

Fitzwater said Reagan is not even considering whom he might nominate if Bork is rejected and "gets angry at the very thought of even mentioning a replacement."

At Bork's confirmation hearing Tuesday, held in the same Senate Caucus Room where the Watergate hearings were held, the Judiciary Committee heard different accounts of Bork's role in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre.

On Oct. 20, 1973, former Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigned rather than carry out President Nixon's order to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Bork, then solicitor general, ultimately handled the dismissal.

Richardson told senators Tuesday that he resigned because he promised the Senate and Cox that he would not fire the prosecutor. Bork, he said, had made no such commitment and did the right thing. He then saved the prosecution team by keeping it together, Richardson testified.

Bork testified two weeks ago that after Cox was gone, he immediately tried to find a strong new prosecutor to replace him and make sure the investigation would proceed.

But Henry Ruth and George Frampton, members of Cox's prosecution team, challenged those accounts in their testimony Tuesday.

They questioned whether Bork had the inclination or power to replace Cox with a strong successor who would pursue the truth. They said Leon Jaworski, Cox's successor, was named because the Nixon administration bowed to "a firestorm" of public opinion and congressional pressure.