He said President Clinton should continue to resist committing ground troops, "particularly given the way the operation in the Balkans has been managed to this point."

He also resisted committing to an opponent for his next fight, whether it be Shane Mosley, or a rematch with De La Hoya, Trinidad or Roy Jones Jr., the last man to defeat him, 11 years ago.

But Mr. Shanker still resisted committing his union's kitty to the city's rescue.

Mr. Franks's preference for compromise was also evident in 1998, when he long resisted committing himself on the Republican House leadership drive to impeach President Clinton.

As they considered the administration's initiative, industries at first resisted committing themselves to specific targets.

Unlike last season, when the networks basically ran away from reality in their presentations to advertisers, because they feared advertisers would resist committing money to reality television, they are embracing what Randy Falco, the group president of NBC, called "the right kind of reality - upscale reality."

Today President Bush and his aides found themselves ensnared in at least one of the issues that bedeviled President Clinton as Saudi Arabia resisted committing itself to speeding up the establishment of normal relations with Israel.

Mr. Gore's longtime adviser, Mr. Fuerth, pointed up a potentially broader problem for an administration that has so far steadfastly resisted committing United States ground forces to help keep the peace in Afghanistan, let alone in a future Iraqi regime.

She couldn't resist committing it to memory.