PEROT, THE ENERGIZER BUNNY

Ross Perot refuses to fade from national politics. Just when you think he's gone back to being just a billionaire businessman, he resurfaces behind a podium preaching his reform gospel.

His latest foray is to promote the formation of another political party: the Reform Party. Perot is trying to get his new party certified for November ballots across the country.

The crusader insists the effort won't launch a new Perot candidacy, but with this guy -- the Energizer bunny of American politics -- one never knows.

It is hard to imagine, though, that Perot could improve on the 19 percent of the vote he got in the 1992 presidential race. Many of his supporters were rebelling against a weak Republican incumbent. Others were sending a message to Congress that America needs a political outsider to shake up the system.

The battle for the GOP nomination, though, provides ample diversity to pigeonhole most of the Perotistas still out there. If the emergent Republican candidate can address the concerns of the 19 percent, it will go a long way toward making Perot politically irrelevant, if he isn't already.