muddy the waters
muddy the issue

These play well in the west and muddy the waters.

I hope this did not muddy the waters too much.

It was better not to muddy the waters, she decided.

And maybe they could muddy the waters a bit for good measure.

But I'm sure you knew that, and decided not to muddy the waters.

The information and advice from a dead man did little more than muddy the waters.

None of this must be allowed to muddy the waters!

And they immediately joined in the game, to muddy the waters.

I would have had him then but that they muddied the waters.

That's starting to muddy the waters of whether it's going to catch on or not.

The apartment only muddied the waters and had nothing to do with my job.

"This whole thing was on track until you muddied the waters."

Other priorities or considerations could, we believe, only muddy the waters.

Shadows running around in the air, muddying the waters you might say.

No, she decided, this wasn't the time or place to muddy the waters.

I didn't mean to muddy the waters with that comment.

By saying 1000 years you are deliberately muddying the waters.

No sense muddying the waters with details even I don?

A Paul win would certainly muddy the waters, but it hardly changes the general flow.

"I had thought that you might clarify matters, not muddy the waters further."

Better to repeat a lie they already believed than to muddy the waters with the truth.

What studies do exist tend to muddy the waters more than clarify them.

Bringing your true identity into it might have muddied the waters.

This is just an excuse to muddy the waters and turn back!"

All they managed to do was muddy the waters.

To get a sense of how muddy the issue has become, consider the debate over semantics.

"I am surprised they are muddying the issue," he said.

I don't want to muddy the issue by making up bogeymen.

Many Poles fiercely oppose the idea because they fear it would further muddy the issue of responsibility.

Further muddying the issue, some media organizations, particularly television, hire private detectives to help with research.

You're trying to muddy the issue.

Frank Casey, representing the clubs, raised points in a 30-minute hearing that appeared to be aimed at muddying the issues before the judge.

He muddied the issues again by doing relatively little to promote a war of ideas - quite as if his loftier comments were merely blather.

Three other judges, however, in a separate dissent, ruled that Indian casinos are constitutional, further muddying the issue for lawyers trying to decipher the decision.

The House has also muddied the issue with simplistic proposals for deportation and surveillance powers that are aimed at innocent immigrants more than terrorists.

Yesterday's European Union agreement muddied the issue, failing to clamp down on any subsidiaries, but reserving the right to add names of affiliates in the future.

While today enough fossil diversity is known to make a close relationship among the "ostracoderms" unlikely, this has muddied the issue of the Hyperoartia's closest relatives.

And the coroner, rightly criticised by Mr Justice Comyn for his "very serious irregularity," muddied the issue even further.

Of course, the lawyers on both sides would now come in and complicate and muddy the issues, but even they could never weaken the central pillars of the agreement.

But the false label has muddied the issue, playing to people's fear and indignation, and stoking the opportunism of Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader.

New evidence, such the fact that the designs were listed as the property of de la Planche upon his death, establishing a weak form of copyright, has muddied the issue.

The terrorist attacks may muddy the issue even for judges who have opposed profiling, said Randall L. Kennedy, a Harvard law professor who is a specialist on race and the law.

True, most of the space between here and Cardassia was either unclaimed or belonged to the Federation, but engaging the Boklar after they left Klingon territory would muddy the issue.

This government is a complete shambles, using media soundbites and scapegoating to muddy the issue, divide and conquer, while they rip us off completely and sell off what's left of the family silver!

Doubt and ambivalence are transmuted into clarity and certainty, and any attempt to reintroduce complexity into the debate is rejected as 'mere nitpicking' or 'a deliberate attempt to muddy the issue'.

A document held at the Glamorgan Record Office in Cardiff, Wales, entitled 'Edwards Trillions' outlines the case as it stands today, with claims and counter claims further muddying the issue.

Despite this, Microsoft in their application releases muddied the issue, releasing 32-bit versions of Microsoft Office right up to Office 97 SR2b, but relying upon 16-bit versions of Internet Explorer technology.

Given how easy it is to make children appreciate the mystery and fragility of the earth - and the urgency of safeguarding it - one can only marvel that so many recent books have (so to speak) muddied the issues.

Randall would save himself and the Smithsonian a great deal of trouble if he simply agreed to smile and nod, but if he insists on muddying the issue - " "He believes Finch's people may still be alive."

And all he could do was sit there quietly, as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton scolded him for views that "muddy the issues around sound science" and Senator Barbara Boxer said, "I think we have to focus on facts, not fiction."