At his news conference, Mr. Giuliani and his aides had engaged in a little New Jersey humor while detailing where the city's garbage would go.

But deputies and their aides also engage in fistfights on the chamber floor.

The new officials then launched an investigation and reported that Duyet and his aides had engaged in corruption and abusive practices.

But Mr. Beckman said the Mayor's aides were engaging in rhetoric, having been told a week ago that the new hiring was taking place.

For the last week, they and their aides had engaged in passive-aggressive squabbling over school vouchers.

His aides were engaging in a time-honored pre-debate tradition of setting high expectations for their opponent and lower expectations for their candidate.

Removing their jackets, Mr. Edwards and his aides engaged in comfortable, friendly banter.

His initial crackdown on corruption went far and wide, but his own aides have engaged in old-style influence peddling.

Ada disarms the aide then engages the president in hand-to-hand combat, finding the former self-defense instructor to be a worthy match.

Throughout the conference, aides like Andrew M. Cuomo, an assistant housing secretary, engaged in their own ritualistic denunciations of war-on-poverty programs.