Nunn gears up for '92 run

Prospects improved that Sen. Sam Nunn, the moderate GeorgiaDemocrat, will run for president in 1992 with private word that hewill resign from the exclusive Burning Tree Golf Club to avoid thepolitical albatross of membership in a club that admits no women asmembers or even guests.

Nunn, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, since1979 has enjoyed a special "resident guest" membership at BurningTree, a category reserved for influential political figures.

Nunn's decision coincides with his tip to Senate intimates thathe will announce his presidential decision two weeks after thisfall's election, where he is running unopposed for a fourth Senateterm. One problem: the possible candidacy of Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, whoran a highly creditable 1988 vice presidential race. Bentsen andNunn could split non-liberal Democratic ranks and help nominate aliberal. Baltic brush-off

After first refusing to even discuss Tunne Kellem's visit toWashington with the Estonian independence leader's emissaries,President Bush's national security staff finally gave an answer justbefore Kellem's arrival here Friday: no contact with Kellem eventhough Mikhail Gorbachev is rattling his scabbard against the smallBaltic state.

Kellem's representatives tried for two weeks before his arrivalto set up an appointment with a low-ranking official on the staff ofNational Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft. The answer finally cameback: Sorry, but no time. During Kellem's visit, Secretary of StateJames A. Baker III was busy negotiating new agreements with SovietForeign Minister Eduard Shevardadze.

A footnote: Canada is following the U.S. example. Kellem'sscheduled meetings with officials in Ottawa were canceled this pastweek (at the same time that one of Lithuania President VytautasLandbergis' deputies was stiffed there in trying to call onofficials). GOP undercutting

Supporters of South Dakota's Sen. Larry Pressler are furiousthat he is being undercut by White House rumors and could cause theRepublicans to lose a seat badly needed if they are to regain controlof the Senate by 1992.

Word is that White House Chief of Staff John Sununu is low onPressler, reflecting the opinion of President Bush himself. Presslernever has been highly thought of in the Bush camp since his supportfor Sen. Robert Dole helped Bush lose the 1988 South Dakota primary. Warning to El Salvador

The entire House Republican leadership has written El Salvador'sPresident Alfredo Cristiani that if Col. Guillermo Benavides is not"aggressively" prosecuted for the murders of Catholic priests, U.S.military aid may end.

"Failing to aggressively prosecute Benavides, in spite of theoverwhelming . . . evidence against him, will significantlystrengthen" liberal opponents in the House who want to terminate U.S.military aid, the 36 GOP congressmen warned Cristiani.

They said they were "troubled" by reports that Benavides mightbe released before trial for the murders last November.

Evans & Novak are nationally syndicated columnists of theChicago Sun-Times.