But in recent generations the Opera had been a sad, tired, bureaucratic mess that had a miserable standing among the great houses of the world.

"A majority were people lost in this bureaucratic mess, and it took a while to straighten it out," he said.

"They think it's going to be a big bureaucratic mess, and they are mistaken," he said.

For instance, he said, many American inventors were failing to file patents because the process is "such a bureaucratic mess."

President Obama wants to cut through the bureaucratic mess and consolidate unnecessary departments.

He doesn't get caught in a bureaucratic mess like a lot of bigger companies.

When you've got a bureaucratic mess of this sort, it's a mistake just to shut things down unless there's no other recourse.

Those meetings don't just happen; some strong words are used to cut a path through the bureaucratic mess.

But everybody is waiting for the law, because hey don't want to get tangled up in a bureaucratic mess.

"The kids and their parents are caught in a bureaucratic mess, and it's been hard on everyone since this all started."