Other goals - to leave Monticello, move to New York City, put some of his grief behind him - are on a perpetual back burner.
This year, leaders are practically begging House members to fill more than 20 vacancies on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a reflection of the fact that foreign issues are on the political back burner.
Still, the Bush administration put North Korea on a diplomatic back burner as it followed its obsession with Iraq.
However, without formal links to any of the political parties it withered, and devolution and the establishment of an assembly were put on the political back burner.
As a consequence, the much-proclaimed special relationship with our former colony now finds itself on a not-so-special back burner.
The national media is treated cordially but is relegated to a political back burner.
No, he preferred to keep it simmering on a mental back burner; it was safer there.
It was something else to keep on the mental back burner.
The debate over Puerto Rican self-determination can no longer be forgotten on the political back burner.
The problems of runaway medical costs and underinsured citizens are too important to be left on a political back burner.