"Bush instinctively, and Rove intellectually and tactically, knew they should not compete issue by issue," said a Republican strategist.
Reflecting the complexity of the competing issues in the case, members of Congress have filed briefs on both sides.
They also know how bureaucratic rivalries, personal vendettas, competing issues and partisan politics often trump national security imperatives.
"You have two competing issues — fair competition and basic human rights to compete," said Angela Schneider, a sports ethicist at the University of Western Ontario and a 1984 Olympic silver medalist in rowing.
Supporters of the bill say it would allow a logical, coordinated way to approach competing issues: how to save the gardens, many of which are 10 or 20 years old, and how to provide much-needed housing.
"I think the commissioner's decision on alternative assessment represents a fair and reasonable balancing of competing issues calculated to keep students to standards," Mr. Levy said in a prepared statement.
He pointed to two specific initiatives as examples of the areas where the administration would try to improve cybersecurity: No. 7, which is an effort to develop a framework for international partnerships building a common cybersecurity policy, and No. 10, which is the effort to create an identity management strategy that would be able to balance the competing issues of security and privacy.
But the debate here is being watched carefully as an indicator of the more important German political campaign to come next year, with the same competing issues of European solidarity, national self-interest and fatigue with subsidizing weaker, less competitive southern countries likely to dominate.
"A pure-play wireless professional services company will help companies sort out the morass of competing issues," said Mr. de Ganon, who was joined by executives of SilverCube and Emerald Ventures in a telephone interview as they provided a preview of the coming deal.
Judge Kevin J. Carey said the competing issues are whether a corporate board should be free to exercise its judgment that a bonus plan would improve business, or whether there was any need for a troubled industry to give bonuses when "there is no place for management to go".
