Though Mr. Ashcroft is expected to be confirmed, even many Republicans questioned why Mr. Bush picked a fight with Democrats still smarting from his excruciatingly close victory.

Ballots are still being counted in the excruciatingly close contest between Roy Goodman, a Republican state senator for three decades, and Liz Krueger, his Democratic challenger.

All the while, his aides fretted over what they asserted was an excruciatingly close race between their man and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The Democrats lost the last two excruciatingly close elections because Al Gore and John Kerry did not fight fiercely and cleverly enough.

Paying excruciatingly close attention, one could pick out the substantial assets of the Concert Overture from 1948, but the experience could be likened to viewing a Dufy painting through cheesecloth.

Mussina's starts over the past month have mostly been excruciatingly close games.

Nixon's most unselfish hour was when he refused to contest the excruciatingly close results.

As a result, said Douglas Bailey, a Republican political consultant, almost everything Mr. Bush does comes under excruciatingly close scrutiny.

It takes 60 votes to end a Senate filibuster and the excruciatingly close arithmetic of the Senate has not changed.