While Microsoft insists that it will win the case, the hardened position on remedies is fueled by a growing perception among the attorneys general that their side has gained the upper hand in court.

Prospects in the House, where the number of members with ideologically hardened positions is greater than in the Senate, may be even dimmer as sponsors prepare to introduce the measure in the next few days.

Ten years after the Presidents Commission was created to place the control of athletic departments in the hands of chief executive officers of universities, the hardened positions of presidents and basketball coaches have reached the breaking point.

Hezbollah then launched more rockets into northern Israel and engaged the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in guerrilla warfare from hardened positions.

On the Senate floor, the treaty's critics and supporters spent inconclusive hours debating its merits, most speaking from prepared texts and hardened positions.

But the campaign only strained diplomatic relations between Tbilisi and Washington, and hardened positions.

For that very reason I suspect her criticism may not cut deeply enough into the hardened positions of post-modern intellectuals.

Governments are backing off hardened positions to get an agreement, and even the customary disagreements between North and South - the developed nations versus the developing nations - lack their usual edge.

Revco said it had submitted that plan based on the "hardened positions of the various creditor constituencies" in recent negotiations.

Clubs Voice Disapproval Asked his reaction to the possibility of a hardened position by the owners, Fehr said, "What are they going to do, have a double lockout?"