ARE DOLE, LOTT BOTH PLOTTING POWER PLAYS OVER SENATE POST?

The Senate Republican cloakroom is abuzz with rumors of palace intrigue.

There is growing speculation that ambitious Majority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., the Senate's second-in-command, has his eyes on the majority leader's job held by Bob Dole. As a result, behind-the-scenes relations between Dole and Lott have grown increasingly distrustful in recent weeks.The shotgun marriage between Dole and Lott began in 1994, after Lott edged out Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., a Dole loyalist, by one vote for the No. 2 job. Defying early expectations, there's been calm for a year.

Dole diehards are now complaining that Lott has distanced himself from the majority leader on several key issues and blindsided him on others. Lott's supporters counter that Dole has often kept his deputy out of the leadership loop.

Sources say Dole was livid with Lott during the debate over whether to send American troops into Bosnia. Dole supported the deployment, while Lott chose the politically easy route of opposing the mission. Dole quickly became furious at what he felt was Lott's grandstanding - going on television to criticize the mission without consulting him first.

A group of Republican senators had just finished a meeting in Dole's office in December when a reporter asked Dole if he knew that Lott had just denounced the mission on television.

Says Dole: "I don't think he really ever took an a oath that he was going to support the leader on everything."

The latest fracas was sparked by freshman Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., a Lott loyalist, who drew the ire of his colleagues by suggesting that Dole would face a challenge for the Senate's top spot if his presidential bid failed.

Lott, who did not return our repeated phone calls, lamely sought to distance himself from Santorum's remarks and claimed the thought hadn't crossed his mind. But colleagues recall the way he sandbagged Simpson for the assistant leader's job and see a pattern.

Lott's supporters theorize that Dole, not Lott, may be engaged in a power-play to anoint his own successor: Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., chairman of the Republican Policy Committee.

"I think some of it is that Dole would prefer to see Nickles and doesn't really trust Trent," said this Lott ally. "I think Dole perceives a philosophical gap and doesn't want to give Trent any traction."