But even from there the brothers have tried to use their friends in Congress to scupper anti-narcotics legislation.
The petty rivalries and internal politicking that accompany any merger can scupper the best-laid plans.
And since it partly reflects his perceived electability, any doubts about that could scupper him.
Even if all the technical hurdles can be overcome, however, politics—the real motivation for the project—may yet scupper it.
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That, and Palestinian and Arab reaction, could scupper hopes of progress towards peace.
Whether by design or not, the incident looks likely to scupper any chances of bringing the fighting to an end.
This is perhaps the most explosive question of all, and the most likely to scupper or delay the whole process.
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That will scupper the government's pledge to bring health and other social-welfare contributions below the equivalent of 40% of gross wages.
He helped to scupper the bipartisan budget-balancing plan of the Bowles-Simpson commission, which would have raised revenue by eliminating tax loopholes.
So a no vote in one country would scupper the whole project.
China, which reasonably suspects America of trying to plump up India as a counterweight to its own rise, may also want to scupper it.
Whether by design or not, the taking of hostages in Moscow looks likely to scupper his chances of bringing the fighting to an end.
But if the Yellow Sea clash was a deliberate effort by hardliners to scupper new talks, they have allies of a sort in Washington.
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Even a worse Japanese recession need not scupper the world economy.
By focusing on general issues rather than cross-border ones, the two companies underestimated a factor that would define, and could even scupper, the entire deal.
This link gives lawmakers every incentive to scupper the president's agenda.
They have been attempting to scupper the election by whipping up a crisis over a dodgy land purchase by General Surayud Chulanont, the interim prime minister.
They are afraid of the renewed fighting that could follow a sudden failure of the deal, or that could erupt as a means to scupper it.
They may also hope to scupper cautious efforts by India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, to restart peace talks with Pakistan, which had collapsed after the 2008 assault.
In one way, the yellow-shirted elite is right: Mr Thaksin probably did play a malign role, especially in helping scupper attempts at a negotiated end to the protests.
If he loses it, there could be elections in late summer, in which Eurosceptics could conceivably strengthen their hand in the parliament and thus scupper the constitution there.
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