GRAPEVINE

By DAVID ELLIS

Last year all 55 Democratic Senators voted as one in a failed attempt to override President Bush's veto of the 1990 Civil Rights Act. So what's holding up Ted Kennedy from introducing a new version of the bill this year? The problem: a mini-rebellion by at least half a dozen first-term Senators who are up for re-election and terrified that Republican challengers will smear them for supporting "racial quotas." Chuck Robb of Virginia, chairman of the Democratic campaign committee, confirms that he is "working with several people for a bill that can get signed." Translation: the vulnerable legislators are agitating for a compromise bill that's closer to the White House version than the measure endorsed by the Democratic leadership. The endangered Democrats cite a recent series of polls indicating that a majority of the public resents any law that is perceived as establishing strong preferences for minority groups.

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart