Really? You think he had absolutely no influence for those 4 years?
The fact that he was on TV constantly "flapping his lips" as you put it (in other words, giving the far left sickos their yelling points) shows that somebody thought he had quite a bit of influence.
He has as much influence today as he did then. Nada.
Flapping lips are invited to TV to make controversy on air. His vote didn’t count for a thing and Tea Party people have been beat over the head with “We don’t have the votes” for the past eight months. If it’s true for us, it’s true for them.