21.   Republicans said the Democrats found this request to be a convenient excuse for holding proceedings that did not examine many of the larger issues raised by Whitewater.

22.   Some employees believe the strike has provided the team with a convenient excuse to do some housecleaning, with the striking players taking the blame.

23.   Taste can be a convenient excuse for protesting a monument whose subject it is otherwise taboo to criticize.

24.   Stone drank before he met Jenn, and she provides a convenient excuse for drinking now.

25.   The Axtell transcript transgression simply becomes a convenient excuse to act against Penders, to stop the bleeding before it ruins the carpet.

26.   The convenient excuse -- floor leader Pooh Richardson missed his second straight game with a knee strain -- sounded suspect, as the Bullets also lost their point guard.

27.   They have provided the dictator with a convenient excuse for all that is wrong with his country.

28.   These two incidents provide a convenient excuse for those who argue that a regional crisis is building and therefore the general situation is worse than before.

29.   Indian punters have a habit of betting on anything, cricket merely provides them a convenient excuse.

30.   It would appear that the depreciation of the ringgit is being mercilessly used as a convenient excuse to raise prices arbitrarily.