C Lani Guinier

Vice President Al Gore tried to improve the Administration's strained relations with blacks Monday, telling the NAACP that it is time for new civil rights gains after a decade of fighting "the radical right." He was politely received by the audience. But the organization's board chairman told the group that President Clinton had "kicked us in our teeth" by not sticking with the nomination of C. Lani Guinier at the Justice Department.

President Clinton speculated Thursday that retired Adm. Bobby Ray Inman withdrew as the nominee for secretary of defense because "down deep inside I think maybe he wasn't sure he wanted to go back" to government service. Clinton, in his first public comment on Inman's decision, said Americans "shouldn't lose sight" of Inman's 30 years of military service in which he rose to the rank of four-star admiral.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and U.S. Appeals Court Judge Stephen G. Breyer are heading President Clinton's latest short list of candidates for the U.S. Supreme Court, according to sources close to the search. Although the sources said that Clinton is still wrestling with the nomination and the situation could change quickly, there were signs that the much-delayed selection may be announced by Wednesday. The opening was created when Justice Byron R.

President Clinton and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin will meet at a Moscow summit later this year. Maybe. Clinton and Yeltsin agreed when they met in Vancouver in April that they would get together again in Russia in the not-too-distant future. On Thursday, in Athens, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said in answer to a question that the two leaders will meet "in the next several months," acknowledging that the details have not yet been worked out.

Consumed with getting the NAACP internal house in order, its president conceded Saturday that the civil rights group was a tad quiet on the freedom-fighting front this past year. But things are going to change in a hurry, Kweisi Mfume promised a group of 300 NAACP members at the group's annual meeting. "Last year was a good year for us, but you ain't seen nothing yet," Mfume said to cheers at a meeting that at times resembled a church revival.

Two expected nominees to head the Justice Department's civil rights and environment divisions, facing uncertainties over Senate confirmation, withdrew from consideration Friday. Although separate difficulties prompted the two men to pull out, their withdrawals are a substantial embarrassment for the Administration.

In a highly unusual step, the White House sought Wednesday to regain the initiative in the battle over Henry Foster Jr., President Clinton's nominee to be surgeon general, by clearing him to speak out publicly in defense of his abortion record and professional history. Foster consented, with White House clearance, to be interviewed Wednesday night on ABC-TV's "Nightline" program and was considering other interviews as well.

President Clinton has settled on Boston lawyer Deval L. Patrick in a third effort to fill the top civil rights enforcement position at the Justice Department, Administration sources said Saturday. The nomination of Patrick, 37, a Harvard Law School graduate who has worked closely with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc., is expected to be announced shortly, perhaps early this week, the sources said. The President withdrew his first nominee, C.

As his Administration was collapsing around him in scandal and ineptitude, President Warren G. Harding bemoaned his failing fortunes to famed Kansas newspaperman William Allen White. "I have no trouble with my enemies," Harding said in 1923 after the eruption of the Teapot Dome scandal, involving two of his close friends and Cabinet officers, "but my goddamn friends, White, they are the ones who keep me walking the floor nights."

White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum resigned Saturday, bringing to an end a yearlong tenure marked by controversy and accusations that his zealous advocacy of Bill Clinton's interests had compromised the President's political standing. In a letter released by the White House, Nussbaum defended his performance, saying his critics "do not understand, nor wish to understand, the role and obligations of a lawyer, even one acting as White House counsel."