Hormel's back for more.

Can he endure another round of bigotry and bickering?

Just when James C. Hormel's nomination as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg appeared to be done for, the heir to the Hormel Meat Packing Co. fortune may have new political life. In early January President Clinton resubmitted Hormel's nomination to the Senate, which had failed to vote on it in 1998.

The White House decided to take on a small cadre of right-wing Republican lawmakers who had placed a "hold" on the gay philanthropist's nomination, blocking a floor vote that Hormel was likely to win. "The strategy is simple: This is a new Congress, and now the Republicans say they are compassionate conservatives no longer governed by the extreme right," said Richard Socarides, the White House liaison on gay and lesbian issues. "This is their opportunity to prove that. We are taking them at their word." Senate majority leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, who led the opposition, did not comment on the renomination.

The nomination was approved early in 1998 by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Republican senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, a staunch foe of gay rights. But Hormel ran into election-year politics. Shortly after Lott called homosexuality a sin and compared gay men and lesbians to alcoholics and kleptomaniacs, he announced that he would not allow a vote.

Lott's move was widely considered a gesture to the religious right. Led by the Traditional Values Coalition, conservative groups blasted a $500,000 donation Hormel made to the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center of the San Francisco Public Library, claiming it was used to purchase pro-pedophilia documents and homosexual pornography. In a letter to the Senate, however, Hormel said he had no control over the books in the library, and he rejected the notion he would promote gay rights while representing the United States overseas.

Despite the shellacking the GOP took in the November general election, Lott is unlikely to change his mind and allow a vote on the nomination. But Socarides said the White House has a contingency plan. During the next congressional break, most likely to occur in March, Clinton can make Hormel a recess appointment, allowing him to serve until the end of Clinton's term. Had the president taken such an action during the recess last December, Hormel's appointment would have expired in November of this year. "I'm not saying we are going to make a recess appointment," Socarides said, "but we certainly want to keep our options open."