Whether Mr Westerwelle will take the rap for the FDP's electoral setbacks is also unclear.

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If he fails to find a consensus, though, he will have to take the rap for what is sure to be a very unpopular reform.

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Rand also noted that only an ethic of rational selfishness can justify the pursuit of profit that is the basis of capitalism -- and that so long as self-interest is tainted by moral suspicion, the profit motive will continue to take the rap for every imaginable (or imagined) social ill and economic disaster.

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Hope told police he would not "take the rap" for something he did not do and drug addict Richards denied the killing.

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His latest album, Take Care, earned the Grammy for Best Rap Album and has sold nearly 2 million copies in the U.S. alone.

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Mr Schroeder's failure to take the rap with good grace has only won him more criticism for quibbling rather than tackling the problem head on.

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Pam MacKinnon, a director whose past work I have greatly admired, has failed to toughen up the flabbiness of the script, and certain members of the cast, Ms. Kirk in particular, give overly obvious performances for which she must also take part of the rap. (Not so Mr. Wood and Ms. Parisse, who are their usual excellent selves.) Daniel Ostling's set looks as though it were made of cardboard.

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The former Heisman Trophy winner and sportscaster beat the criminal rap in 1995 in Los Angeles, but is now doing time in Nevada for attempting to take back his football memorabilia from collectors in Las Vegas at gunpoint.

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