Looks like maybe there's another Utahn, besides Sen. Orrin Hatch, who could be the next U.S. attorney general.

When lame-duck Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson appeared at a Capitol Hill rally on Wednesday, he was introduced by political blogger John Nichols thusly: "Just so you know impeachment is not some East Coast liberal phenomenon, please welcome the former mayor of Salt Lake City . . . "

Nichols quickly corrected himself, the mayor took it well, and at the end, Nichols apologized for hurrying Anderson out of office when he still has eight months left.

"But you are a lawyer and we're going to have an opening soon for attorney general of the United States," Nichols said, to cheers from the crowd.

Let the unfounded speculation begin!

Confidence man

President Bush's confidence in Alberto Gonzales knows no bounds. Asked about the performance of his long-time friend before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Bush said that the attorney general "answered every question he could honestly answer" and that it "increased my confidence in his ability to do the job."

That's pretty remarkable, because repeatedly over the past several weeks, White House spokespeople have said the president had "full confidence" in Gonzales.

Now - even though a spokeswoman said the president didn't watch any of the testimony - the confidence is fuller than full, overflowing, spilling all over the West Wing.

Maybe FEMA will be able to clean it up.

Word of the day

Come to Congress and cast a line! The fishing is great in D.C. this time of year, or at least that was the claim of Republicans, who blasted Democratic efforts at oversight as mere "fishing expeditions," this week.

The phrase got so overused, that Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, had to break out some fancy Texas talk. "If we are to continue this investigation, it cannot be an endless piscatorial expedition," Smith said, according to Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank.

"Piscatorial means fishing," reported Rep. Chris Cannon, who has a dictionary and isn't afraid to use it.

Ouch!

Sometimes readers offer up the best zingers. One e-mail, responding to a story about Vice President Cheney's planned visit with the LDS Church's First Presidency during his trip to Utah drew the following: "I thought the Church Leadership always taught to avoid all evil. . . . Let's not teach one thing and do another."

---

* BURR AND GEHRKE staff The Tribune's Washington bureau. They can be reached at tburr@sltrib.com or gehrke@sltrib.com.