Few would question that Ashfield DeVent, who lost his Cabinet post yesterday, had his heart in the right place and struggled mightily to ease the Island?s housing crisis.

But in the end, he did not deliver, and it seems likely that Premier Alex Scott decided he never would. In politics, you are judged by results, and Mr. DeVent had few to show from his troubled tenure.

So he is gone, and Lt. Col. David Burch is back, both in the Senate and in the Cabinet.

When Sen. Burch left Government after the Jennifer Smith coup in 2003, he was solely responsible for housing. Now he has both that portfolio and Works and Engineering.

That?s too bad. If housing remains one of the Island?s greatest priorities, then it would be logical to leave it as its own Ministry, especially when Government is intent on merging the Bermuda Housing Corporation with the West End Development Corporation and the Bermuda Land Development Company.

That was supposed to be Sen. Burch?s job, and now a replacement will have to be found.

The very fact that Sen. Burch is on the move again so soon after taking that post suggests that this latest shuffle by Premier Alex Scott has been taken in some haste. It may be that he was frustrated with the lack of progress on this key component of the ?Social Agenda? on which he has staked his own career, along with Independence.

Whether Sen. Burch can rescue the Premier from his own political quagmire remains to be seen. It?s worth noting that Mr. DeVent called him in to run the quangos and ended up losing his job to him.

Sen. Burch has built a reputation as someone who can get things done, but he has not been tested over any length of time. When he was last in charge of housing, there was arguably nowhere to go but up after the BHC scandal and he did well in getting the organisation back on its feet.

But he was not in the position long enough to really move the BHC forward. Now, presumably, he will be, and he will be judged not just on tough talk, but results.

It can be argued that Mr. DeVent?s rapid elevation from relatively new backbencher to the holder of two of Government?s most important portfolios was too much, too soon. Certainly it had all the potential to be a poisoned chalice, combining the two worst scandals of the Progressive Labour Party?s first term under one hat, and it would have taken a politician of much greater skill and experience than Mr. DeVent to make a success of it.

In the end, he did fail, although he and not Mr. Scott made the hard decision to sack Pro-Active Management Systems after that company?s failure at the Berkeley. Now Works may be in better shape, although delays to the Bus Terminal suggest it is still not firing on all cylinders.

With housing, Mr. DeVent was much less successful, running into one controversy after another. At first he had no plan, and since then many of the Corporation?s schemes have come unstuck due to neighbourhood opposition, and poor preparation. What was the BHC doing buying emergency prefab homes when it had nowhere to put them?

Mr. DeVent?s meteoric rise and equally rapid fall show what can happen when an inexperienced politician gets put on the firing line.

Now Sen. Burch, who presumably knows plenty about firing lines, will have to show that he can advance the Government?s agenda. It will not be easy.