"You cannot beat somebody with nobody" (1900)

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William Safire's NEW POLITICAL DICTIONARY said that this is often  attributed
to "Uncle Jo" Cannon, the House Speaker from 1903 to 1911.
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Was this coined by "Odell" from New York (see last citation)?
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4 July 1900, Washington <i>Post</i>, pg. 1:
The party leaders realized that they could not beat somebody with nobody,
and while they drifted around aimlessly, failing to concentrate their votes, the
 Towne boom would grow until it would reach proportions beyond control.
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16 September 1908, New York <i>Times</i>, pg. 1:
The situation is the one familiar to such fights where it is impossible to
beat somebody with nobody.
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3 July 1912, Washington <i>Post</i>, pg. 1:
Leaders trained in the art of political warfare have an axiomatic saying,
"You cannot beat somebody with nobody."
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20 December 1915, Boston <i>Daily Globe</i>, "Waiting on the  Colonel:
Republican Nomination Depends on What Roosevelt Does" by Louis Sebold,  pg. 1:
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 -- The logic of the sound political axiom first
enunciated by Odell, the most sagacious of New York Republican leaders, "that  you
can't beat somebody with nobody," exactly applies to the conditions  confronting
the two political parties already planning for the next Presidential  campaign.

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