BY FRANK DAVIES

 WASHINGTON -- With public opinion supporting the government's move to seize
 Elian Gonzalez in a predawn Miami raid, President Clinton Tuesday offered his highest
 praise so far for Attorney General Janet Reno's handling of the operation.

 But Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said he expects hearings next week by the
 Senate Judiciary Committee, even as some analysts and Republican pollsters were
 warning that the issue could backfire if the public thinks it is being politicized.

 Appearing with Reno at a White House ceremony, Clinton said: ''I would like to
 commend the attorney general and Deputy Attorney General [Eric] Holder, law
 enforcement and the INS. They had a very difficult job to do with no easy choices,
 and I am grateful that they were able to safely reunite the young boy with his father.

 ''I believe it is time for all of us, including the media and those of us in public life, to
 give this family the space it needs to heal its wounds and strengthen its bonds, to work
 to lessen the pressure on them as the matter goes forward in the courts,'' Clinton said.

 Earlier in the day, the attorney general was quizzed during a private meeting by 13
 senators, several of them very critical of the raid. ''Many of the questions were not
 adequately answered,'' Lott said.

 Reno and Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner were
 grilled about the raid and the legal issues surrounding the case, but Floridas two
 senators said they learned little new about the operation.

 Before Lott spoke, Republican Connie Mack said he supported a Senate hearing on
 the use of force. ''I am deeply troubled and horrified that our government would use
 armed force in a family home to remove a 6-year-old child,'' he said.

 Democrat Bob Graham said he would also support a hearing, ''so the American people
 can fill in the details of what happened.''

 Meissner said most of the senators questions were about the legality and justification
 for the operation and the status of the asylum claim for Elian, which will be heard
 by an appeals court May 11.

 ''I hope we allayed some of their concerns,'' said Meissner of the meeting, which
 lasted almost two hours.

 Sen. Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also attended the
 meeting with Reno, but did not commit to a hearing.

 Hatch, whose committee would run the hearings, released a letter to Reno
 seeking documents and other information related to the raid, and a committee
 spokeswoman said, ''Some of the answers we seek we may get in private
 meetings.''

 Lott listed Miami attorney Aaron Podhurst and University of Miami President
 Edward T. Foote II as potential witnesses at Senate hearings. Both were involved
 in unsuccessful negotiations with the Justice Department before federal agents
 entered the Little Havana home of Elian's Miami relatives.

 Nonetheless, some analysts and pollsters are telling GOP leaders that the issue
 could backfire.

 A Gallup poll conducted Saturday for CNN and USA Today also showed
 widespread support for the raid, by 57 percent to 37 percent. And by a 62 to 30
 percent margin, a strong majority in an NBC News/Zogby poll opposed
 congressional hearings on the raid.

 ''The Republicans have been tone-deaf on things that the American public doesn't
 want to hear about,'' said Andrew Kohut, director of Pew Research Center for The
 People and The Press.

 Hearings on Elian also have ''some potential to backfire -- and Republicans have
 been known to overreach,'' said George Edwards, director of the Center for
 Presidential Studies at Texas A&M University. ''Their hatred for Clinton and their
 desire to win the White House may cloud their judgment.''

 ''No one wants to look like they're using this for political reasons,'' said Frank
 Luntz, a pollster for Republicans who predicted that the Elian saga would hurt Al
 Gore, who broke with the administration on the handling of the case. Gore said
 Tuesday he disagreed with the decision to forcibly take Elian, telling National
 Public Radio: ''I would have handled it differently.''

 After the meeting with Reno and Meissner, senators sparred over the meaning
 and tactics of the raid and what should happen next.

 Graham said he continued to push the Justice Department to allow Miami
 relatives of Elian to spend time with Elian and his father, but Patrick Leahy, a
 Vermont Democrat, questioned the immediate need for it.

 ''Talk about family values -- the relatives have called the father unfit, accused him
 of abusing his son, having doctored photos taken,'' Leahy said. ''This family in
 Miami wanted to hurt Castro and help Elian, but ended up helping Castro and
 hurting Elian.''

 Jodi A. Enda of The Herald's Washington Bureau and the Associated Press
 contributed to this report.
 

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald