But the arid legal hairsplitting that dominates that chamber poses fewer policy problems than the messier lower courts do.

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But former North Carolina Senator John Edwards says when it comes to Iraq, those differences amount to hairsplitting, especially in contrast to the Republicans.

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And we cannot say we love the rule of law but dismiss arguments that appeal to the rule of law as legalisms or legal hairsplitting.

CNN: Transcript: White House Deputy Counsel Mills' statement

Indeed, some of the product specifications seem like hairsplitting.

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The majority counsel accused us of quote "legal hairsplitting, prevarication, and dissembling" and urged the members of the Senate and the House to pay no attention to the obfuscations and legalistic pyrotechnics of the president's defenders.

CNN

Nathan practically throws up her hands over the hairsplitting distinctions between video programming that is delivered to consumers in real time, delayed by a microsecond, or stored on a hard drive to be delivered hours later.

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In that case, Scalia made the hairsplitting distinction between technology that picks up information that is out in public view and technology that reveals information that otherwise could only be obtained with eavesdropping equipment inside the house.

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And thus the Judiciary Committee's dissatisfaction with the president's answers because they thought they were narrow or even hairsplitting in some sense reflects a dissatisfaction with the rules that have been applied for centuries in prosecuting this offense.

CNN: Transcript: White House Counsel Ruff's opening statement

When Daschle, who has denounced Clinton's behavior as well as the White House legal team's hairsplitting, joined Lott in fashioning a blueprint for the proceedings that was ratified by a unanimous Senate vote, Clinton was miffed, wishing instead that Daschle had led the kind of rock throwing that had so benefited the President in the House.

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