If Attorney General Janet Reno was looking for a new reason to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate questionable campaign-financing practices by the White House, she reportedly has found it in the person of Vice President Al Gore. His alleged involvement in shifting soft money to help the Clinton-Gore re-election effort is one more reason for the attorney general to act soon.

According to The New York Times, a senior aide to the vice president took incriminating notes at a 1995 White House discussion. Mr. Gore’s deputy chief of staff, David Strauss, is said to have recorded an outline of the division of hard and soft money for the vice president’s telephoning activity. Hard money is cash collected directly by campaigns that falls under campaign-financing restrictions. Soft money is collected to help a party generally, for instance, with get-out-the-vote drives, and is largely unrestricted. The vice president has said earlier that he was not aware that some of the money he was solicting would be used directly for the campaign.

During the last several elections, and in 1996 in particular, the line between hard and soft money was blurred, with candidates using large amounts of soft money for their personal benefit. (That’s why the House recently passed a ban on soft money and why the Senate, when it returns to session, should too.) The question before Attorney General Reno is whether the vice president solicited large amounts of money reportedly for the general party use but actually used directly for the Clinton-Gore campaign.

That isn’t the only question, of course. A larger one deals with whether the administration collected money via intermediaries from the Chinese government. Another yet addresses all those White House coffees. Vice President Gore was cleared of wrongdoing last year by Ms. Reno, whose own investigation of the fundraising has so far led to 11 indictments of helpful Democrats.

How the attorney general can conclude that those 11 participated illegally in fund-raising while the Big Democrat — her boss — should escape outside inquiry is a mystery. The Washington Post reported last week that after months of refusal, Ms. Reno is close to approving a limited investigation on the issue.

Whatever she does, she should do it soon. While Al Gore began running for president sometime back during the Reagan administration, now he is his party’s leading contender and deserves a quick and decisive verdict on whether he committed wrongdoing. It would be extremely unfair to him to drag out the prospect of an investigation until just before the next election.

There is ample evidence to support appointing an independent prosecutor. What remains is a question of scope and timing. If the attorney general is truly concerned about an investigation’s effect on the White House, she will act now and not let these serious questions linger for another two years.