...If the DUP succeeds in sweeping all or nearly all of the remaining Ulster Unionist seats, then Paisley, the DUP's founder and veteran firebrand leader, will become at last, as he has sought all his long political life, the uncrowned king of Protestant Northern Ireland.
... It was certainly the case that over the fall and early winter, Paisley seemed to be moving closer to making a deal with Sinn Fein, strongly encouraged by both British and Irish government officials. But in early December the deal fell through at the last minute, when the Irish Republican Army rejected Paisley's demand that it present the photographic evidence of decommissioning. Since then, things have gone downhill fast, and the strategy of Prime Ministers Tony Blair of Britain and Bertie Ahern of Ireland now threatens to blow up in their faces.
... But since the December talks broke down, Sinn Fein, as the political wing...
Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley | 3/18/2009
