Bet you never thought you’d see those fours words in a row, eh?

But check out this John F. Burns piece in Wednesday’s New York Times headlined, “Cool Debater Helps Britain’s Also-Ran Party Stir a Race.”

The “cool debater” is Nick Clegg.

The “also-ran party” is the Liberal Democrats, described  by Burns as “perennial also-rans in the three-party contest that has dominated British politics for decades” – the other two parties being Labour, headed by incumbent prime minister Gordon Brown, and the Tories, headed by “posh” wannabe prime minister David Cameron.

The three met in the “first-ever televised debate between candidates for prime minister” last week, and Clegg acquitted himself exceedingly well. That gave him the slingshot right into the news media’s self-cleaning oven:

Bake ’em,  serve ’em, break ’em.

From Burns’s Times story:

Mr. Clegg appears to be riding a maelstrom of voter disgust with the established parties, similar to the anti-Washington passions that have driven American presidential politics for a generation.

Paging Scott Brown. Paging U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.

But . . .  an ominous sign for Clegg:

“A lot of people are tired of the rhythms of the old politics,” he said in [an] interview, one of many he conducted with a press contingent that has more than doubled since the debate.

That will eventually be double-trouble for Clegg.

Bake ‘im, serve ‘im, break ‘im.

You heard it here first.