But for all their own bickering, the family closed ranks when a member was attacked.
Instead of retreating, the GOP and its voters closed ranks and attacked with a unified message and battle plan.
The hierarchy at Portsmouth have closed ranks since announcing the departure of Adams.
When one of their number is accused of crime, Brazil's politicians have often closed ranks, and shut down investigations.
The Penn State scandal was not about what Jerry Sandusky did, but about the system that closed ranks behind him.
And though neither the Mexican hierarchy nor the Vatican wholly approves of the bishop, each closed ranks against government attempts to dislodge him.
Having watched the music industry writhe in agony over Napster, entertainment titans quickly closed ranks to wring a buck out of the video-swapping phenomenon.
House Republicans closed ranks against the bill, indefinitely delaying a vote.
His main problem is that his allies have only 38 of the 100 seats in Ecuador's Congress, where the traditional parties have closed ranks against him.
Cross Keys again closed ranks as Bridgend made a series of mistakes until the irony of a visitors handling error led to a breakaway score by home fly-half Paul Williams.
Rattled by these events, "Team Anna" - as the campaign's leadership is popularly called - has closed ranks and blamed the authorities for carrying out a witch hunt against them.
And, while the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitors Kosovo on the ground, has closed ranks around Mr Walker and told him to stay, some European diplomats (especially French ones) were muttering that the American envoy might have been overhasty in his reaction to the Racak slaughter.
Like other conservative Japanese companies, Toyota has been far more insular than its Western counterparts, and had been closed in the past to the idea of board members from outside company ranks.
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