"It was a wonderful meeting and we had some healthy democracy," said Clarence Norman, the party's beleaguered leader.

There is nothing like an election to concentrate the peacemaking energies of a beleaguered political leader.

"It's a blatant power grab," said John J. Faso, the beleaguered Republican leader in the Assembly.

"What she would like to project is the picture of a beleaguered third-world leader who is being persecuted by the U.S. justice system," Ms. Rodriguez said.

Restive members of the opposition Conservative Party succeeded in forcing a vote of confidence in their beleaguered leader, Iain Duncan Smith.

He has always fashioned himself a slightly beleaguered leader, someone who does not need the job and never wanted it.

Last weekend, however, Rudolf Scharping, the beleaguered leader of the ailing Social Democrats, voiced what opinion surveys say is the majority view among Germans.

After meeting with Mr. de la Rúa, Mr. Menem defended the workers' right to strike, but he lent some words of support for the beleaguered leader.

They must have Jim Fassel envy, all the beleaguered leaders of men within earshot of the Giants' head disciplinarian.

For Bank of America and its beleaguered leader, Kenneth D. Lewis, the turnabout is particularly sweet.