On a cold Thursday, Rocky Anderson was warmly welcomed by a crowd of about 150 during an impeach-Bush rally at Washington's Capitol.

In this blue state, the Salt Lake City mayor said he was proud to represent the reddest of states to "join with millions of good, patriotic Americans who are standing up around the nation and willing to raise their voices with you all here today against this madness."

Anderson - who has generated headlines for other fiery protest speeches against President Bush in the nation's and Utah's capital - got two chances to rip the commander in chief at Thursday's rally.

He led the protesters in shouts of "no" against torture, warrantless wiretapping, the Iraq war and an "imperial president whose repeated, blatant, arrogant disregard for United States and international law has transformed our country into a pariah state."

Anderson's vitriol surprised some Washingtonians.

"He's the mayor of Salt Lake. Can you imagine?" Olympia resident Lynn Salerno said to her friend. "How did he ever get elected?"

Others knew about Anderson. They have tracked him through liberal media sources such as Air America and Truthout.org. Todd Boyle of Kirkland has even distributed DVDs of Anderson protesting Bush last August when the president visited Salt Lake City.

"I thought Salt Lake City was militaristic and fundamentalist," Boyle said. "I'm glad to see they have principles."

Sherri Goulet called Anderson "one of our heroes."

"He has a national reputation," she added. "We're honored to hear him."

Susan Gilmour of Tacoma called him brave.

"He comes from a state that's very conservative. As long as he's not passing up on something he doesn't want to do in Salt Lake, I think it's great [he traveled to Olympia]."

Utahns who saw Anderson's August rally would recognize Thursday's speech. He struck the same themes. Even some costumes in the crowd were similar - oversized heads of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in jail jumpsuits.

Utah Republican Chairwoman Enid Greene has called Anderson's push to impeach Bush "embarrassing" and accused the Democratic mayor of playing politics to "burnish" his liberal résumé.

Anderson denies a partisan motivation - unlike, he added, the GOP-led impeachment of then-President Clinton. And he had a warning if Congress doesn't pursue impeachment:

"Future generations of Americans will have cause to fear the rise of another corrupt president who will find encouragement from President Bush's legacy of lawless, authoritarian governance and flagrant fraud."

hmay@sltrib.com