He is a tough career operator from the State Department who brokered the Dayton peace accords that ended the Bosnian war in 1995.
But he is a tough guy who never cracks.
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Mr Colmenares is from a minority party, and he is likely to face a tough challenge, not just from opponents in Congress but also the powerful Catholic Church.
Yet Mr Smith will realise soon, if he does not already, that he is up against a tough opponent.
Capuano supports "patients' rights" health care legislation and a single-payer system, although he concedes the latter is a tough sell in a Republican-led Congress.
Mr Frost's other assets include one of America's few female generals as his wife, a strong record on bringing defence contracts and other pork back to Texas, a relatively conservative record in Congress (he is best known for a tough law punishing child-molesters) and the fact that Mr Sessions is fairly strong meat even by Texas standards.
Still, he is a reluctant prime minister, and he has yet to prove he is tough enough to stand toe-to-toe with less cerebral and more self-serving politicians.
He is a moderate Democrat facing a tough re-election race in a swing district.
It is, he concedes, a tough time to be knocking on doors cap-in-hand.
While he may be a tough taskmaster, Gatland is happy to give public credit to the players he has inherited.
Mr Dalli, a former Maltese cabinet minister, has argued that he is the victim of a tobacco lobbying campaign to block tough new legislation - the Tobacco Directive - to make smoking less attractive.
If a deal is signed, he will project himself to the middle-of-the-road voter as a tough bargainer who is also a pragmatist and statesman.
And I don't know what it is, but he's had a tough time getting out of the fifth inning.
That said, Wu notes that he remains concerned that the company is in a tough position fundamentally in the PC business, with low-cost players Lenovo and Acer encroaching on one one side, and Apple gaining ground on the other.
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Similarly, Pennsylvania's Senator Rick Santorum, who is facing a tough fight for re-election, is suddenly emphasising that he voted against the Senate immigration bill.
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Like Mr. Buffett, Mr. Jain is viewed a tough negotiator who is willing to let a deal go if he can't get the price he wants, as illustrated by his approach to Transatlantic.
He talked with CNN about what the recognition means to him, how tough it is to throw a perfect game, and whom he would take if he played in the challenge.
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In the 10th post, he's compelling, and eliminating him is a tough cut.
Joel knows that finding homes for children his age is a tough sell, and he wonders if "going public" will help.
He could have warned them about how Marvell is a tough place to work, with its up-all-night work habits and short-fuse product development.
Phillips is a tough veteran, but he picked a fight with Micheal Haley, called up from the Connecticut Whale to add some punch, literally.
Rajoy is in a tough position as he made pledges to his constituency to make the necessary cuts without accepting aid and the tough measures that come with it.
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He is the right man for this tough job at a critical time.
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Mr Sarkozy himself knows that, if he does not take a tough approach, there is a candidate lurking on the far right who is eager to benefit: Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Not everybody gets it the first time, but he is terrific and he's a very nice guy and I think anyone who makes the mistake of thinking that his cordiality or softness is making a serious error because he's one tough kid.
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