Cranston to Return to Capital, Says Cancer Is ‘Licked’ : Senate: He outlines plans for the rest of his term and criticizes leaks about the ethics probe of his ties to S&L; executive Charles H. Keating Jr.

WASHINGTON —  “I think I’ve licked this thing totally,” an ebullient Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) said Wednesday of his fight against prostate cancer.

After weeks of grueling radiation treatment, followed by major surgery last month, Cranston has resumed playing tennis and will return to Washington on March 5 with an unrestricted work schedule.

“The main impact (of the treatment and surgery) was energy depletion, but I’m actually feeling fine and optimistic,” Cranston said in a telephone interview from “somewhere on the California coast.”

Cranston said he will “try to do my best to contain” the Persian Gulf conflict by urging President Bush to avoid a ground war, and he outlined an ambitious legislative agenda for his last two years in the Senate.

“I’ll be freed of spending the next two years campaigning, of going to California every weekend, and I can devote myself to legislation,” Cranston said. He will be pushing hard for legislation to promote alternative fuels and rapid transit, to help veterans returning from the Persian Gulf War and to encourage water conservation.

Cranston was highly critical of leaks of information from the Senate Ethics Committee, which is investigating allegations that he and four other senators intervened improperly with federal regulators on behalf of savings and loan executive Charles H. Keating Jr.

He said he was particularly angered by a recent news story suggesting that he may be the only one of the five recommended for punishment in the form of censure by the Senate. Cranston said he would be an easy target because he is not seeking another term in the Senate. Thus, he said, no election would be affected.

“I’ve had more than one call from senators who feel outraged by the whole thing . . . that I may appear to be a logical scapegoat because I’m not running for reelection,” he said. “That’s very unfair and would be evidence political factors would play a part in the (committee) decision-making.”

Cranston said he also fears that he may “conveniently become more vulnerable” if the committee decides that it wants to punish someone while avoiding any impact on the political balance between Democrats and Republicans.

The Ethics Committee is investigating the relations between Keating and Sens. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.) and John Glenn (D-Ohio), as well as Cranston. Keating gave $1.3 million to the campaigns or political causes of the senators.

Keating has become a symbol of the S&L; crisis because his institution, Lincoln Savings & Loan, based in Irvine, collapsed in a failure that will cost taxpayers an estimated $2 billion. It has been the costliest insolvency among hundreds of thrift failures.

Cranston is the only one of the five senators who has declared that he will not seek reelection.

He received $39,000 from Keating and the S&L; executive’s associates for his 1986 reelection campaign, and another $85,000 was given to the California Democratic Party.

The biggest donations--$850,000 in corporate contributions by Keating--went to three voter registration groups affiliated with Cranston. “The point that never comes through is that it was all charitable contributions to organizations approved for tax-deductibility by the IRS,” Cranston said. “None of the organizations were under my control.”

The Ethics Committee is trying to reach a final decision this week on the Keating case. The committee can decide to absolve the senators, issue letters of reprimand or recommend that the full Senate impose punishment through such measures as a resolution of censure or denunciation.

Cranston said the repeated leaks about the committee’s work are “vastly unfair and improper.” He noted that the committee’s leaders, Chairman Howell Heflin (D-Ala.) and Vice Chairman Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.), have formally requested that the General Accounting Office investigate the news leaks.

Cranston said his doctors have told him to “come back for checkups every now and then but I will not need any further treatment.”