New Era of Doubt over Arms Deals ; Woes of Test-Ban Treaty May Signal End of Bipartisan Accord on Armscontrol

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A raging battle over whether the US should ratify a treaty banning nuclear-test explosions poses extraordinarily high risks for both the Clinton administration and its Senate Republican foes - and appears to mark the collapse of a 35-year bipartisan consensus in favor of arms control.

Yesterday, each side was looking for a face-saving way out of a scheduled up-or-down vote on the global Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Republicans were recognizing that if they voted the treaty down, in the first-ever Senate repudiation of an atomic-arms pact, Democrats could paint them as nuclear war-mongers in next year's elections. For his part, President Clinton was …