The report was approved with virtual unanimity by the 17-member committee.

But in politics, as in the stock market, virtual unanimity often signals the need for skepticism.

Six months ago, when oil climbed above $24 a barrel, there was virtual unanimity that the price could not hold.

Despite this virtual unanimity of opinion 104 it had long been accepted that there were certain exceptions to the rule.

The panel operates by consensus, requiring virtual unanimity for any major recommendation.

On the desirability of travel as a preparation for diplomacy there was virtual unanimity.

There's virtual unanimity in the matter from the Hamptons to Connecticut.

But there was virtual unanimity yesterday on a related question: What does this do to the Democrats who might run against him in 1997?

The fact that there is virtual unanimity in Europe makes your mission hopefully a little less impossible.

Unanimity - or, as we have it today - virtual unanimity is no guarantee of freedom.