If the House of Representatives ignores the result of the November election and approves one or more articles of impeachment against the president before Christmas, that historic misuse of constitutional prerogative will be the proud boast of one tough politician who is now driving the process: Tom DeLay, the former exterminator from Texas who serves as the Republican Majority Whip.

Given the overwhelming public sentiment against impeachment, which has led many to believe that the issue would die on the House floor, only a figure as influential and determined as DeLay could have revived it. He has done so by filling the power vacuum left by the departing Speaker Newt Gingrich and his successor, Bob Livingston, who has permitted DeLay to take de facto control of the Republican conference.

Livingston is nowhere to be found, while DeLay blusters his way through the Sunday talk shows, promoting impeachment. Rep. Peter King, the New York Republican moderate who is pushing for censure and is trying to convince other moderates to join him, pointed to DeLay, not Livingston, when he appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday. Clinton won't be impeached, predicted King, "if Tom DeLay allows us a free conscience vote on whether or not there should be a censure motion."

Though DeLay's grim countenance is only now becoming familiar to most Americans, he is already a minor legend in Washington. "Tough" and "mean" are the epithets with which his colleagues most frequently describe the Texas congressman, who almost started a fistfight with Rep. David Obey, D-Wisc., on the House floor a few years ago. The New York Times denounced him as "thuggish" in a recent editorial, and it is true that hearing him speak does not immediately inspire respect for his subtlety.

But while DeLay may scare a few quaking moderates with personal bullying, he possesses a far more effective weapon to enforce his will. When he raises his fist, it is usually filled with campaign cash. He won his informal nickname as "the Hammer" over the past few years by shaking down business lobbyists with naked threats. He keeps lists of the most active political action committees, carefully tracking how much they give to Republicans and to Democrats, and rewarding or punishing them accordingly when their interests are affected by legislation. Since the Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, these tactics have tilted the flow of business money decisively in their favor: In the last election, almost two-thirds of the business PAC dollars flowed into Republican coffers.