41.   Prospects for the bill are dim in the Republican-controlled House where GOP leaders oppose it.

42.   Protestant political leaders oppose severing Northern Ireland from Britain.

43.   Republican leaders fiercely oppose the campaign finance measure, which will ban the large unrestricted donations to political parties known as soft money.

44.   Republican leaders have long opposed the legislation, arguing that it violates free speech rights, and would weaken the political parties.

45.   Republican leaders also oppose efforts to regulate issue advertising, another component of the proposal.

46.   Republican leaders fiercely oppose the Shays-Meehan bill saying that it would weaken the national political parties and infringe on free speech.

47.   Republican leaders oppose the ban because their party gets more soft money than the Democratic Party does.

48.   Republican leaders opposed to tougher gun laws have so far refused to allow a conference to go forward between House and Senate members aimed at producing an acceptable compromise.

49.   Republican leaders strongly oppose the measure, although everything in Washington is on the table for the budget negotiations.

50.   Russian leaders oppose the idea of NATO membership for Lithuania or its Baltic neighbors, Latvia and Estonia.