31.   It is, in short, a statehouse version of the rationale for divided government so often made in Washington.

32.   It was the first explicit veto threat from Clinton since the voters returned a divided government.

33.   It was never perfect, but merely the best hodgepodge both sides in a divided government could sensibly get.

34.   Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon both canceled trips abroad Wednesday to concentrate on stabilizing the deeply divided government.

35.   Republican polling has shown widespread public support for divided government in Washington.

36.   Rep. E. Clay Shaw, Jr., the incoming House chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee, said divided government may help overhaul efforts.

37.   See, many Americans in their innate wisdom have decided that divided government is safer.

38.   So he and his country face two more years at least of divided government.

39.   Such a divided government, the conventional wisdom goes, creates a more reasonable approach to lawmaking.

40.   The American people opted for politically divided government on Election Day, Clinton said, by returning a Democratic president and a GOP-led Congress.