TENNESSEE WALTZ

By JOHN DICKERSON/WASHINGTON

What is it about politicians from Tennessee and campaign-finance investigations? AL GORE is sweating one, FRED THOMPSON folded one and now a rainmaker for LAMAR ALEXANDER, a former and possibly future presidential candidate, is involved in another. In September, federal agents seized documents from the offices of Beaulieu of America, a Dalton, Ga., carpet company run by CARL BOUCKAERT, a key money raiser for the former Governor of Tennessee. Beaulieu, the third largest carpet manufacturer in the U.S., was a target of a Justice Department price-fixing probe, but was not charged. Investigators are now looking into whether or not the company reimbursed employees for contributions made to the plain-talking, plaid-shirted candidate's 1996 presidential campaign. It was precisely a scheme of that sort that cost one of Bob Dole's moneymen a $1 million fine.

--By John Dickerson/Washington