Word: rearguard
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This eleventh-hour rearguard action was launched by C. Boyden Gray, the White House counsel, who had opposed the bill from the start. Between 4 and 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Gray instructed his staff to fax to federal departments an order that, in Bush's name, "terminated" all government programs that give preference to racial minorities and women in hiring, promotion, federal contracting, college admissions and scholarships. Gray's view that the new law should be blind to color and sex is popular not only with conservatives but also with a majority of voters. Yet his position flatly contradicted...
...Gorbachev now confirms that order -- which he had opposed until last week -- and effectively extends it to the entire country. For decades the party structures behind the scenes in government, industry and the security forces had controlled all official decisions. They had also put up some of the toughest rearguard opposition to Gorbachev's efforts to press on with perestroika...
...standard definitions for such descriptive terms as high-fiber, low fat and light and certify health claims listed on product packages. This phase will also address the tricks associated with serving size. Until the federal agency jumped into the fray, private physicians and nutritionists had been fighting a lonely rearguard action in this realm of superslim slivers and oversize wedges. A manufacturer wishing to boost the nutrient value of a cereal, for example, simply bases the label on an oversize portion. If low calories are the object, the portion becomes minuscule. Take, for example, Entenmann's fat-free Chocolate Loaf...
...years the court spared lawmakers the hard task of resolving difficult issues like abortion and school desegregation by imposing solutions in a constitutional wrapping. The new court is far more likely to toss such explosive matters back to state legislatures and Capitol Hill. "We're playing a rearguard action just trying to keep what we have," says California Democrat Don Edwards, who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights. "Congress has to do the work we had counted on the court...
...collapse of its network came at a time of increased vulnerability for , AT&T. Although Ma Bell still carries 70% of the U.S.'s long-distance traffic (down from 90% five years ago), it has been fighting a rearguard action to keep its customers from defecting to its feisty competitors, MCI and US Sprint. The glitch simultaneously deflated AT&T's multimillion-dollar "reliability" advertising campaign and handed its competitors a once-in- a-career sales pitch. "An important message to everyone whose telephone is the lifeline of their business," began a print ad rushed out by US Sprint after...