"What the president did was terribly wrong, and I've said so repeatedly," Gore said.

Gephardt's endorsement, coming nearly a year before the actual primary, gives Gore a powerful ally within the Democratic Party. Gephardt is popular with labor interests and other traditional Democratic constituencies.

The two men have known each other since 1976, when they entered the House of Representatives in the same class.

They have clashed occasionally. Both ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, after Gore had moved to the Senate, and Gephardt was an opponent of the North American Free Trade Agreement Clinton signed in 1993.

At a speech at the ARCO Forum in December 1997, Gephardt attacked the Democratic leadership--and the Clinton administration--for trying to "market a political strategy masquerading as policy."

But Gephardt downplayed their differences yesterday, instead praising Gore as a principled family man.

"He's a wonderful human being, and we'd all be proud to have him as president of the United States," Gephardt said of his occasional rival. Gephardt called the vice president "a leader who has a vision for where our country needs to go now."

Gephardt left the presidential race Feb. 3 and has said he intends to concentrate on House races instead. The minority leader stands to become speaker if the Democrats can retake the House. Republicans currently hold a slim 11-vote advantage.