"Their negotiating style is they put draconian steps on the table that no one can touch."

Totally to oust the court's supervisory jurisdiction in a field where ex hypothesi the citizen can have no right to be consulted is a draconian and dangerous step indeed.

I firmly believe that if appropriate action is not taken, draconian steps will be necessary.

'Afraid of Taking Responsibility' Referring to legislators who balked at more draconian steps, Mr. Abalkin said: "They all want to be sympathetic and to please the public.

"I have made the proposition that we are going to scrub, quote unquote, the budget as thoroughly as we can possibly do to find the kinds of savings that hopefully will keep us from taking on some of the other draconian steps," he said.

It could take draconian steps to pay off the debts at the expense of clamorous Russian industries, interest groups and needy Russians.

"They didn't like the Crane proposal because it's a draconian step, but the Stearns amendment gave people an out," Mr. Houghton said.

Andrew Tyler, director of the charity Animal Aid, said: "It is a draconian and officious step.

Of course, the Florida legislature would not have even contemplated that draconian step were it not for the fact that the Presidency itself hung on Florida alone.

The Brooklyn Museum and Detroit Institute of Art have had to take draconian steps such as staff furloughs, and many smaller museums are in similar straits.