skirmishes

One House aide notes that there will be some "short-term skirmishes on expiring continuing resolution and debt ceiling," but the real action will come when competing budget documents from the White House, House and Senate are produced.

So much for fiscal leadership from Obama Jennifer Rubin 2011

WASHINGTON The resolution of the Virginia Senate race Thursday completed a Democratic sweep of Congress, setting the stage for a rush of ideas, investigations and confirmation skirmishes from a party largely left out of national decision-making for the past four years.

Sweep gives Dems power to put plans into action 2006

Near three months, without excepting the holy season of Lent, were consumed in skirmishes and preparations, before the Latins were ready or resolved for a general assault.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

My – unproven – strategy for handling my novel’s half-dozen pitched battles and dozen or so skirmishes is as follows:

Spotted: Swords in the Park zornhau 2005

As bruising as all these short-term skirmishes are, in the long term we’ve already won the war.

FMA: We win. I’m depressed. 2004

As bruising as all these short-term skirmishes are, in the long term we’ve already won the war.

Alas, a blog » 2004 » July 2004

There's an old-fashioned quaintness to John McCain's insistence on the centrality of the town hall meeting -- even he doesn't really believe in it, for he always shapes his meetings not to the locals and their concerns but to the action taking place in the campaign email and conference call skirmishes over the addled attention of the press that particular day.

Mayhill Fowler: John McCain's Fake Town Halls 2008

I think the skirmishes are an indication that atheists are feeling especially marginalized lately.

Becoming what you most dislike 2005

I don't belong to the generation which raises storms in tea-cups, and calls skirmishes with savages battles.

The Evil Genius Wilkie Collins 1856

But observers and some Burundians say the skirmishes are a struggle for power, this time among the Hutu themselves, some of whom have joined the political process.

The Guardian World News 2011