In just one term in office, U. S. Sen. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., has become known in Washington's corridors of power as a "real power." He has become perhaps the most effective freshman senator in many a year and his ability to ingratiate himself with his party's leadership is reminiscent of the almost mythological style of the early Lyndon Baines Johnson as described in Robert Cato's "The Path To Power" the first volume of his multi-volume critique of America's thirty-sixth president.

That may be Coverdell's biggest asset and his biggest liability as he runs for an endorsement term this year. Consequently, this may be why he seems destined to join former Sens. Mack Mattingly and Wyche Fowler his two immediate predecessors in the seat as one-term wonders.

Now, Georgians like their senators to have power and influence but they prefer them to be able to come home and just be one of the folks. They want a senator who is able to come home and "sling the slop," as courtly Arkansas Sen. J. W. Fulbright once opined (though he used a more graphic word than slop when he said it).

Coverdell does not even seem to come home much and, when he does, most folks don't even notice. In poll after poll, Coverdell's job performance approval rating hovers just below the 50 percent mark. And, by anyone's definition, that means he is extremely vulnerable. (In the authoritative Mason-Dixon Political Media Research poll taken in June, more than one-third of the respondents said they had no opinion of Coverdell, either good or bad, at all.)

As University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock recently pointed out, Coverdell "gets some nice stories in the national media but that doesn't get you any votes in Georgia."

Now, Coverdell is not exactly a political novice. In fact, he was one of the first Republicans elected to office in modern times. Back when he first took his seat in the Georgia state Senate, he was one of just four members of his party in that body: Today, there are 23.

Of course, that Coverdell was to say the least a different breed of Republican than the Coverdell who is now completing his first term in the U. S. Senate.

To begin with, back then he was a political moderate, or as the man who is now U. S. House Speaker once told me over coffee at the Dwarf House restaurant in Hapeville "a Northside Atlanta liberal."

In fact, he and Wyche Fowler the senator he unseated in 1992 both cut their political teeth on the biracial moderate brand of in-town neighborhood politics which has long governed the politics of Atlanta.

But, from the moment he took office as senator, Coverdell has toed the conservative line, earning a perfect 100 percent ranking from the American Conservative Union and becoming the champion of giving tax credits to parents who send their kids to private schools.

Some folks think that Coverdell has lurched too far to the political right in his quest to establish some conservative credentials.

For instance, there was that "farm bill" he pushed which quickly backfired and is now bankrupting family farmers all across the state.

In fact, the only people who still like that piece of legislation are Coverdell's insurance-company buddies who are getting rich off the premiums the family farmers are paying for their crop insurance.

In an effort to improve his name recognition, Coverdell has begun running some television ads which portray him as always on the run so much so that he can't even find time to eat lunch.

Well, there is working hard and there is working smart. And, frankly, I am not very impressed with someone who has so little organizational ability that they cannot even pace themselves enough to find the time to stop and eat.

Of course, maybe running around in circles is the way Coverdell manages to keep that "lean and hungry look." Maybe Speaker Gingrich should try the regimen as a way to lose weight.