Yet even before the details could be settled, opposition groups began protesting.
But he had to back down in the face of stiff public opposition and settle for a consensus between the main competing parties.
Nor can the opposition simply settle back and wait for vindication as the agony of cuts becomes unbearable: Labour has seen that movie before.
FC Dallas learned lessons from their Houston humbling and made good on them at RFK, playing aggressively from the start and not allowing their opposition to settle on the ball.
"Eddie wants us to play quick, never letting the opposition defence settle, getting the ball to space and going at teams," says Brown. "He wants defences to feel uncomfortable, unable to relax because of the pace we play at.
Great players of spin, like Brian Lara and Mahela Jayawardene, would never let an opposition bowler settle.
As the New York Times reported, while the U.S. State Department was telling Aristide that he had to reach an agreement with the political opposition (funded with millions of U.S. taxpayers' dollars), the International Republican Institute was telling the opposition not to settle.
Ten days after the vote the dust has not settled and the opposition continues to demand a serious recount.
After a plethora of back-room meetings and a discussion between the prime minister and President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, the government and opposition settled for a common motion, duly passed on April 9th.
When looking for a planning minister who could sell the electorate the 1996 economic reform package, for instance, he settled on an opposition politician, Teodoro Petkoff, one of the leftist guerrilla leaders of the 1960s who had signed peace agreements during Caldera's first term.
