October 19, 1993

The foreign policy struggle under way in Washington is especially confused these days. The arguments for involvement in Bosnia, Somalia and Haiti all have appeal that is considerable but not quite compelling, and nothing like the Communist threat the country grew accustomed to. And the tug-of-war over foreign policy, which reached a peak in the Vietnam War, goes back to the very first President.

A COMET on a collision course with Jupiter is behind the Sun now, out of sight but not out of the minds of astronomers, who are busy plotting its trajectory, estimating the potential power of its impacting force and planning ways of observing the reverberating effects with an array of telescopes on Earth and in space. The astronomers are eagerly anticipating their first opportunity next July to observe explosive impacts on a planet that could be comparable in strength to the collision of a large asteroid or comet with Earth 65 million years ago, the catastrophe implicated in the mass extinctions of dinosaurs and many other species of life.

With yet another pebble in its pouch proving a dud, the Arbitron Company left the battlefield of television ratings yesterday, unable to trip up the industry Goliath, the A. C. Nielsen Company. Arbitron said that by the end of the year it would lay off 700 employees nationwide -- 58 percent of its staff of 1,200 -- and discontinue its ratings of syndicated programs and cable television in local markets. More than 400 of those layoffs will be in Laurel, Md., where the company's television ratings operations are based.

With the fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement turning on a few undecided lawmakers, the Clinton Administration is now threatened with the loss of a group that is central to the White House's legislative strategy: conservative Republicans. House Republicans have rebelled at the prospect of $2.37 billion in higher taxes over five years to replace tariffs eliminated by the free trade agreement, inflicting a serious blow to the pact's prospects with the vote only a month away.

When Herman Badillo, the Republican-Liberal candidate for comptroller, campaigns these days, the top of his ticket, Rudolph W. Giuliani, is often at his side. Several of his television commercials have featured or been partly paid for by Mr. Giuliani. And his campaign platform, from privatizing hospitals to slashing the city workforce, closely matches Mr. Giuliani's. But when Mr. Badillo's Democratic opponent, Alan G. Hevesi, campaigns, it is usually without his running mate, Mayor David N. Dinkins. Mr. Hevesi has not produced any television commercials that mention Mr. Dinkins. And though he supports some of Mr. Dinkins's ideas, he routinely emphasizes his desire to remain independent and critical of the Mayor.