21.   This year, lobbyists are tightening their control over the candidate-selection process even more after suffering several stinging defeats in the latest legislative session.

22.   Travelstead was hit with another stinging financial defeat a month later.

23.   Wednesday, returning to the state of his most stinging defeat during the primaries, Bush plans to appear at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, N.H.

24.   When the poll was taken, McCain was coming off a stinging defeat in South Carolina, then surging with an important win in Michigan and Arizona.

25.   A week after a stinging defeat for his party in two state elections, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder faced a new tough test Sunday in the eastern state of Thuringia.

26.   After that stinging defeat, Tech lost two of its final three games as well.

27.   Analysts saw the instruction as a stinging defeat for Simpson.

28.   For his part, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., struggled unsuccessfully to head off the most stinging defeat of his nine-month tenure.

29.   No team has managed to get past the Koreans with full points and many have sustained a stinging defeat in the attempt.

30.   The move came two days after the IOC, in a stinging defeat for Samaranch, turned down a proposal to abolish the age limit altogether.