Word: direness
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That is a prospect so dire that neither side will allow it to occur. For the first time since the talks began four months ago, Democrats and Republicans both seemed more interested in working out a deal than in political posturing. Bush believes the crisis atmosphere arising from the showdown with Saddam Hussein may be the best, and last, chance to stampede the Congress toward a budget agreement...
Such a failure need not and should not occur. Both Bush and the Democrats still insist that the Middle East confrontation poses a danger to the economy so dire that a national emergency exists. The normal political concerns, including the pressure from special interest groups that so intimidates lawmakers, could be set aside in a spirit of national sacrifice. Last week Bush declared that action on the deficit was needed "now more than ever." But are those stirring words a call to action or mere rhetoric...
...would leave open the possibility that he would re-emerge, equipped with nuclear arms and able to shut off the world oil supply for political reasons. As costly as putting down Saddam would be today, coping with the menace he might present in the future would be even more dire...
...they go out of state; they wait until their condition becomes obvious and have a dangerous, second-trimester abortion; or they have a baby by default. Justice Thurgood Marshall described the dilemma in his dissent in the Minnesota case: "This scheme forces a young woman in an already dire situation to choose between two fundamentally unacceptable alternatives: notifying a possibly dictatorial or even abusive parent or justifying her profoundly personal decision in an intimidating judicial proceeding to a black-robed stranger...
Suddenly, however, the President and much of Congress have found a problem they are willing -- no, eager -- to tackle, a threat apparently so dire they are scrambling to amend the Bill of Rights to stop it: the possibility that a handful of fringe showboats might desecrate the American flag. It is the paradigm of the age of escapist politics. No painful economic choices need be confronted. Considerations more complex than a sound bite can be dismissed. And it lends itself to the manipulation of what are in fact the deep and sincere values of a patriotic majority understandably repulsed...