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• n  dull or routine preliminary work preparing for an undertaking

• At the same time, he worked for Massachusetts Senator David Walsh on tariff matters, doing much of the spadework on the famed Hawley-Smoot tariff bill.
• The investigative reporters and opposition-research folks in other campaigns have only just begun their spadework on the Deans, on how the family made its fortune, on what .
• What they uncovered, in a year of spadework, was a story for Hitchcock.

News & Articles

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• Taliban To Open Office In Doha To Kick Off Peace Talks
  U.S. officials say the Taliban has agreed to begin long-stalled negotiations with the Afghan and American governments at the group's new political office in Doha, Qatar. The talks with the U.S. could begin in days, NPR's Scott Horsley tells our Newscast unit. He says the milestone agreement comes after months of "diplomatic spadework." Taliban spokesman Muhammad Naim announced the opening of the ...
  June 18, 2013 - KERA North Texas

Quotes

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• Madeleine Albright in International Herald Tribune
  I would think that without having done the diplomatic spadework, it would not really prove anything,former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in a conference call with reporters set up by the Clinton campaign.
• Nick Clegg in Gulf Times
  Specifically mentioning Lord (Bill) Rodgers, one of the party's "grand old men" who had expressed disappointment at Campbell's stewardship, Clegg warned against "doing the spadework of our opponents".
• Graeme Murty in Team talk
  He will get a good reception, because everyone saw how he put himself on the line for us last season even when there was talk of him leaving,Murty predicted. "He never shirked a tackle and he never stinted in his spadework in the trenches...