February 21, 1993

UPON THIS ROCK The Miracles of a Black Church. By Samuel G. Freedman. 373 pp. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. $22.50.

NOTHING but the barbed wire bordering its roof and a scarcity of windows draws attention to the nondescript two-story building at 1610 Ocean Avenue in Bohemia where Revere Armored Inc. had its headquarters. Unimposing as the building may be, the authorities said that on many days as much as $100 million passed through its portals. Inside, they said, bills lay heaped in bins, stacked on shelves, and even tossed on the floor.

Weeks before he took office, Bill Clinton realized that the economic plan that would define his young Presidency would do two things that any politician would abhor: break promises and raise taxes. In interviews, senior aides told how he and his advisers assembled the plan -- and the plan to sell it. Article, page 20.

There is no riding, or sitting, in Karl Malone's truck. Can't touch it either. The man in the yellow windbreaker guarding what is officially known as the Mailman's Truck, a 72-foot-long, 34,000-pound 18-wheeler, requests that you stand behind the barrier ropes and absorb this ostentatious wonder of the highway from a nice, safe distance. Once, Malone offered his good buddy, Charles Barkley, a chance to watch him delight in the operation of the 13-speed transmission from the passenger seat in the cab. Barkley remembers his response being something like, "I can't fit my big butt in there."

Signs of dissatisfaction have begun to appear in Democratic ranks on Capitol Hill that could complicate and perhaps delay the passage of President Clinton's ambitious economic program, on which he has staked his political future. There are important dissidents, especially in the Senate, on both procedural and substantive grounds. A few have publicly expressed their doubts and reservations, but many more have spoken critically at closed meetings on the plan this week. Most of the criticism has come from conservative and moderate lawmakers from the South and the Midwest.