He waited through statement after statement from committee members. He waited while the first panel commented. Then he was introduced to speak, by Chairman John Conyers of Michigan, as "Rocky Hudson, uh, Anderson."

Conyers made up for it, giving a summary of Rocky's accomplishments and his new role as head of a human rights groups. "He is known to many in Congress," Conyers said.

As Mr. Anderson, we

assume, not Mr. Hudson.

* * *

A scenic MickeyD's?:

Rep. Rob Bishop wasn't successful in stopping a Democratic bill that designated the Taunton River in southeastern Massachusetts as a wild and scenic river, which is intended to stop the development of a new natural gas plant.

But at least he was entertaining.

"The only part of this river that's scenic is the graffiti that's found on the bridges and the human embankments that are part of this river system," Bishop said. "The only thing that's wild about this river are the gangs that wrote this graffiti in the first place."

He didn't stop there, saying it "doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that if you are floating down this river, it is not wild and scenic if you can look over and see the local McDonald's right there on the bank."

Bishop's performance earned him The Washington Times' quote of the week.

* * *

Shipping Leavitt overseas:

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has spent a good deal of time in China recently, mostly checking on the safety of imported items after the whole lead-paint-on-kids'-toys fiasco.

Now it looks like Leavitt will return to the People's Republic, but this time he is the American import.

President Bush has tapped Leavitt, the former Utah governor, to be one of seven American representatives at the Games' closing ceremony.

Some of you readers may have thought the import safety-Olympics connection was a bit of stretch there. But Leavitt doesn't. On his blog (secretarysblog.hhs.gov), Leavitt ties the Olympic motto - "Citius, Altius, Fortius," meaning faster, higher, stronger - to import safety.

This last item comes from Lindsey Hough, who has worked as an intern for The Tribune's D.C. bureau for the past two months. She is now headed back to Notre Dame.

* * *

Orrin falls flat:

Was Sen. Orrin Hatch playing hopscotch last week when he tripped on his shoestrings and arose with that wound on his head?

Is the bright red blotch evidence of a stumped senator suffering from writer's block while thinking up a new tune? Perhaps he was dancing and prancing before he plummeted to the ground?

Apparently, he was just walking.

Whatever he tripped on, Sen. Hatch was reported to be "recovering nicely" from a tumble last week that branded the 74-year-old senator with a nasty head wound.

The oval-shaped splotch that embellished the right third of his forehead hardly slowed Hatch, who wore it like a pro during his live interview with CNBC on Tuesday.

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* BURR AND CANHAM report for The Salt Lake Tribune from Washington, D.C. They can be reached at tburr@sltrib.com or mcanham@sltrib.com.

For more political tidbits, check out http://blogs.sltrib.com/utahpolitics.