NEVER HAVE SO FEW FOUGHT FOR SO LITTLE:

DeLay under fire: What's at stake (Kathy Kiely and Jim Drinkard, 4/11/05, USA TODAY)

In his 20-year rise from back-bencher to one of the most formidable Republican leaders in Congress, no one has understood the limits of Tom DeLay's effectiveness better than the House majority leader himself.

The outspoken Texas conservative, who displays the Ten Commandments in his office but admits he has a hard time loving his enemies, declined to run for House speaker in 1998 because he considered himself "too nuclear." He has kept his profile so low that 42% of those responding to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll this month said they never heard of him or knew too little to form opinions.

That's the beauty of this tussle. Even if the Democrats win it doesn't matter to anyone outside the Beltway.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 12, 2005 11:43 PM