So Mike Nesbitt, the former TV presenter turned politician, the lightweight whom we suspected was all sound-bite and no substance, has packed a punch that has left the DUP reeling.
Make no mistake about it, by pulling his party out of the Executive over an IRA murder, Nesbitt has left the DUP in the patently precarious position of being the only unionists still in bed with Sinn Féin.
Okay, neither side in the DUP-Sinn Féin Stormont partnership might be that crazy about the other – it's one of those relationships which is rarely consummated. But both parties have shown considerable commitment to remaining together however rocky the ride.
By walking out, the UUP has shown some spirit and left the DUP utterly exposed. Nesbitt decided while Dodds dithered. Nigel certainly didn't look sure-footed when trying to explain his party's strategy to the media at Stormont.
Boldly, the UUP struck out on its own while the DUP sought meetings first with the Secretary of State and Prime Minister.
If, as looks likely, the DUP now leaves the Executive too, it will be seen to be mimicking Mike because it's running scared of next year's Assembly elections, rather than acting on principle.
While the UUP's decision was popular among hardline unionists, it certainly didn't go down badly with moderates either. Because, on the streets, nobody has any faith in the institutions.
For the ordinary person, regardless of religious or political allegiance, Stormont hasn't a shred of credibility.
The DUP is protesting that its unionist rival is playing politics and is pointing to the
UUP's record of remaining in government with SF despite IRA activities. "To try to rewrite history is downright hypocritical," thundered Nigel Dodds.
For me, the dazzling double standards are all the DUP's. I remember an Ulster Unionist Convention in May 2000, one of many where David Trimble battled for his political life for doing business with Sinn Féin.
This is what DUP supporters sang outside the Waterfront Hall:
What shall we do with the traitor Trimble
What shall we do with the traitor Trimble
What shall we do with the traitor Trimble
Early in the morning?
Burn, burn, burn, the traitor
Burn, burn, burn, the traitor
Burn, burn, burn, the traitor
Early in the morning.
Gleefully, they switched the mode of death for the then UUP leader from burning to hanging, and then to shooting, in subsequent verses.
David Trimble couldn't walk the streets of his own constituency without bodyguards. Given how events have unfolded, he has a right to feel hard done by.
And the DUP should thank its lucky stars that nowadays those in its community, unhappy that a party still remains in business with Sinn Féin despite murder, are an altogether better-behaved bunch.
