But when Washington appeared on the floor of the Senate to seek advice about pending negotiations with American Indian tribes, the surprised senators proved themselves to be a contentious deliberative assembly, not an advisory board.
A1 Bomber Kills 5 in Afghanistan A man with a bomb killed a senior Afghan intelligence official and four of his officers as they were trying to question him near Kabul's international airport, adding more concern to an already contentious grand assembly meeting to approve a new constitution.
Seth Mydans (NYT) KASHMIR: AUTONOMY PLAN APPROVED The Jammu and Kashmir state provincial assembly approved a contentious resolution for greater autonomy that seeks to end political discontent in the region.
These achievements apart, the environment has still been one of the most contentious areas for the Welsh assembly in its first 15 years.
After setup, class sessions become public assemblies in which contentious issues are debated.
"By changing the synod methodology and making sure the assembly's candid, sometimes contentious discussion was heard around the world, the pope showed he was not afraid of real debate," said John Thavis, author of the bestselling 2013 book "The Vatican Diaries".
Future students of politics will be able to trace the progress towards the Scottish assembly - and particularly the construction of the contentious and budget-bloating parliament building in Edinburgh - through the latter half of this sequence.
Nigeria's presidential, parliamentary and state gubernatorial and assembly elections, scheduled for next month, are likely to be more contentious than usual.
Leading House Republicans on Thursday will take up the contentious debate over the National Labor Relations Board's efforts to block Boeing from operating a $750 million aircraft assembly line in South Carolina instead of Washington State.
The leading figures of the so-called liberal forces in the constituent assembly subscribed to and signed a document containing compromise wording for the most contentious articles of the draft constitution, before withdrawing from the assembly and claiming that somehow the Islamists tricked them into signing the paper.
