But officials say that even if the Administration wanted to go down that road, such an approach would backfire.

The approach backfired as angered Republicans began to stand up for themselves.

Its two-pronged approach could backfire, giving the patents extensions two years shorter than those in the Senate bill.

At moments it seemed that Mr. Clinton's approach would backfire at home.

But that approach soon backfired, as the Laker big men got into foul trouble.

This approach, called the Randy Ratio, backfired because the offense was not balanced enough.

This approach can only backfire on them.

But, lawyers said, going too far with that approach could backfire on him.

But the approach may have backfired: many of the faithful who post to the campaign's Web log questioned whether the wheels were coming off.

Clearly, our "get tough on criminals" approach has backfired.