CLINTON GOES ON TV TO GARNER SUPPORT FOR FAST-TRACK AUTHORITY.

Byline: Alison Mitchell The New York Times

President Clinton, fearing defeat in his quest for expanded trade negotiating authority, made an extraordinary televised appeal for support on Thursday night, accusing interest groups of intimidating members of the House who might otherwise vote for the bill.

Opponents of fast-track legislation gained new ground on Thursday, prompting Clinton to cut short a trip to Texas for the dedication of the George Bush Presidential Library and return to Washington to lobby publicly and privately for votes.

Also making a last-minute appeal and gaining some promises of no votes was Rep. Dick Gephardt, House minority leader, who opposes the trade measure.

Clinton warned that defeat of the trade measure would damage the international standing of the United States and threaten growth in the domestic economy.

``A vote against fast track will not create a single job, clean up a single toxic waste site, advance workers' rights or improve the environment anywhere in the world,'' he said in an urgent appeal issued from the White House briefing room at the request of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is supporting the president's trade measure. ``But it will limit America's ability to advance our economic interests, promote our democratic ideals, our political leadership.''

Clinton argued that if the House vote were taken in secret, ``it would pass overwhelmingly,'' but that members of Congress were under intense pressure to vote against the measure, an oblique reference to the political clout of organized labor, which opposes it. He accused House members of being more concerned about their own political futures than about national economic policy.

He said he was not asking for the vote to be postponed, but said he was moving ahead and ``we find that the deadline concentrates our attention markedly.''

``We think we can get there by tomorrow night, and that's what we're trying to do,'' he said. Clinton had more than half his Cabinet fanned out across the Capitol earlier on Thursday to pressure wavering lawmakers in advance of today's critical House vote.

But as Cabinet secretaries went from office to office, Gephardt and Rep. David Bonior of Michigan, the Democratic House whip, defiantly led their own battle. At midday, Gephardt appeared at a news conference to showcase 15 previously undecided Democrats who had decided to vote against the trade bill.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said she opposed the measure out of fear that global trade would lead to a ``race to the bottom'' unless the administration made labor rights a negotiating point. She said she was ``asking President Clinton to withdraw his request, to go back to the drawing board.''

Gephardt began the day in his office describing squalid living conditions on the Mexican side of the border. He said he wanted global trade to improve standards of living by committing the United States to fight just as hard for labor and environmental protections as it does for intellectual property rights. Clinton decided late on Thursday afternoon, while aboard Air Force One, that he needed to take drastic measures on the trade issue. The president's decision came after Gingrich informed Erskine Bowles, the White House chief of staff, that the measure was headed toward certain defeat unless Clinton could deliver more Democratic votes.

Rep. Robert Matsui of Sacramento, a Democrat who has been working with the president, sounded less optimistic than he had a day before, saying he could bring in 45 to 55 Democrats - short of the 60 to 70 he had predicted on Wednesday.