The government first agreed to forgive Sogo's Shinsei debts, but politicians, facing a torrent of public criticism, abandoned the plan, forcing Sogo into bankruptcy.

If so, they could pull the country back from the abyss and allow politicians to take the usual easy road and abandon austerity and reform.

Conservative Republicans are occupying the territory of moral absolutism that moderate black politicians are abandoning.

At the first sign of blood, politicians abandon missions and generals are retired.

But every time people have been threatened with having to give up Government services, the politicians have abandoned the goal of putting the budget in balance.

Post-Socialism, when politicians abandoned the principles of Ujamaa, the growing underground Hip-Hop movement of the 80's readopted it.

North Carolina's politicians abandoned support for the federal recognition effort until the tribal factions agreed.

Finally, the politicians could abandon the notion of cutting the deficit and simply rewrite the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law to set the deficit limit higher.

On the night of December 11, 2008, politicians across the country were abandoning the American auto industry.

The politicians, said Uti Akpan, 30, a textiles trader in Lagos, "have abandoned the schools because their children do not go to schools here."