But each side believes it has gone the extra mile in order to accommodate the other. Each understands that their own hard men are harder now in their respective stances than they were before the summer. And, increasingly, each doubts the other's good faith in wanting to see the Agreement fully implemented. Senator Mitchell is truly being asked to make bricks without straw. The Belfast Agreement is dying before the very eyes of those to whom it offers most in its guarantees and assurances for the future.
Somebody has to reach out to save it, even if it means risking one's own political ambitions.
Somebody has to expose themselves to the possibility of political annihilation and the accusation that one has broken the line or sold the pass or surrendered to the enemy. But whoever takes the risk also tries for the prize of greatness. He can be the man of courage, who has leaped past tribal or sectional limitations to reach for a place in history. Writing yesterday in this newspaper, Mr Trimble said he was willing to consider any new proposals for sequencing the establishment of an executive and the decommissioning of IRA weapons. In that scenario Mr Trimble would have the opportunity to try for the ultimate prize while placing the republicans' bona fides for testing upon the anvil.