It became a major lighting rod for liberal attacks.

But the issue of lawyers' fees has already become a lighting rod, both for politicians and among the negotiators themselves.

But they have also provided a lighting rod that diverts public resentment away from Mr. Zedillo.

Many of her detractors were forced to acknowledge her administrative skills, while even her admirers among judges and lawyers conceded the brittleness that made her a lighting rod for criticism.

Be the lighting rod for the work and the author.

"We don't want to come in as a lighting rod for dissent."

He suggests calling a licensed arborist to mount lighting rods in the trees that rise above their surroundings.

The company has become a lighting rod in the debate over private management of public schools.

Consider the mutual embrace this year between the pageant, a lighting rod for complaints from feminists, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the First Lady, a lightning rod for complaints about feminists.

Confronted with an extremely serious crisis and doubting their regime could survive, Romanian government officials turned the Jews into a political "lighting rod," channeling popular discontent toward the minority.