Democrats were quick to note the thorny situation for Republicans, as well as McConnell's past diffidence with the Tea Party and DeMint.
It's just one of a swelling number that revolve around the thorny issue of who owns the note on a home when it's forced into foreclosure proceedings.
But, in an indication of how far his proposal was from gaining a consensus among his global peers, the sections dealing with the thorny issue were guarded and merely noted that there was a clear clash of views.
Ross said he would be very careful to "recuse" himself from thorny decisions, a response that Blumenthal noted doesn't really help much.
"Needless to say, this makes me a little nervous," she said, adding that the legal issues the book raised were "nuanced, thorny and difficult, and hard to capture in CliffsNotes".
Yet they too seem frustratingly one-note as they act out the long, thorny friendship of a composer (Mr. Hayden), a playwright (Mr. Esparza) and a novelist (Ms. Shor).
As the piece finished, Mr. Schulte lightened the end of a held note with the very slightest diminuendo before a thorny little riff emerged and vanished.
But as his enthusiasts here and abroad have noted, he did not complete his last term, raising thorny legal questions over whether he would have the right to run again in five years.
The much stronger case to make is that all nine justices seem to agree that the Second Circuit should have dealt with the thorny issues in play at greater length.That said, there were actually two non-decisions of note issuing from the court today.
It notes that balancing Internet privacy with the ability to track criminals is a "thorny issue".
