DOLE TAKES ON CHEMICAL WEAPONS TREATY, IMMIGRATION BILL.

Byline: Adam Clymer The New York Times

Just three months after he resigned from the Senate, Bob Dole reached back Thursday into the legislative process to kill a treaty banning the production of poison gas and to try to derail an immigration bill that he feared President Clinton would claim as his own.

The chemical weapons treaty was shelved until next year after Dole wrote his successor as majority leader, Sen. Trent Lott, and implicitly criticized the pact as not providing foolproof verification and being ineffective against nations that ignored it.

Dole's campaign aides dealt a major setback to the immigration bill, which House Republican leaders had hoped to bring to a final vote next week, by insisting that it include a provision they know would doom it in the Senate - a section that would allow states to deny public education to children who are illegal immigrants.

When he left the Senate on June 11 after 35 years in Congress, Dole said he needed the freedom to campaign on his own and to distance himself from bills, amendments and motions. But now, with his campaign flagging, the legislative process he knows best is providing a welcome opportunity to score politically.

On the immigration issue, a major factor in states like Texas and California, Christina Martin, a spokeswoman for Dole's campaign, said, ``Bob Dole is absolutely committed to real immigration reform and believes that reform should include the Gallegly language giving states the right to decide their policy.''

She was referring to Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Oxnard, and the author of the education provision. The provision is especially popular in California, a major election battleground where Dole trails badly.

But the Republican nominee was not assured of success on this front. Many Republicans in Congress, including some Southern Californians, want a bill passed so they can take credit for it, even if Clinton does, too.

One longtime Dole ally even argued that it was dumb politics for Dole.

``I can't believe they are doing this,'' said Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo. ``Bob Dole is going to go to states with large numbers of illegal immigrants like California, Texas and Illinois, and they are going to ask what did you do to deal with this? And all he'll be able to say is `nothing.' ''

But while the political signposts were confused on immigration, there was little resistance in the Senate to the discouraging message Dole sent on the chemical weapons treaty, which has little hard-core support even though it was negotiated in the Reagan and Bush administrations.

Conservative Republicans like Sens. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Jon Kyl of Arizona; and Lott himself have been fighting the treaty. And Dole's backing assured them of enough votes to defeat the treaty, which would require 67 votes for approval.

President Clinton, apparently unaware of the decision to pull the treaty from Senate consideration, said Thursday afternoon in Rancho Cucamonga that even though the measure had the support of George Bush and Colin Powell, ``bitter partisan debate has broken out in the last few days.''

Clinton urged his audience to ask the Senate ``to put partisanship aside and put America on the side of a safer world without poison gas being exposed to our citizens or our soldiers.''

After the Senate decision was clear, a Clinton campaign spokesman, James P. Rubin, took aim directly at Dole, saying, ``By failing to exercise leadership of the Republican Party, Senator Dole has caused America to lose this important tool in the fight against terrorism.''

Facing defeat, the administration went along with the decision to pull the treaty back. But Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., a leading supporter of the treaty, said he hoped that it would be taken up early next year.

``The whole process was politicized in a way that would be harmful to our foreign policy,'' Lugar said. ``This is not a good time for the debate.''