Cannon's infamous gaffes have been well-documented: Suggesting teenage victims of a gay Republican congressman's sexual harassment have only themselves to blame; getting his Monicas mixed up when trying to compare Democratic scandals to Republican scandals; veering away from the main topic of a congressional hearing on alleged political firings of U.S. attorneys by discussing the bad behavior of a Democrat.

He's even had mountains of criticism hurled his way from his Republican base and has weathered strong challenges for his party's nomination during his last two re-election campaigns. But Cannon, for all his silly partisan comments that often belie reality, may not be the goofiest politician in Utah anymore.

He has a rival.

My nomination is Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah's 1st Congressional District. While his nuttiness has not yet attracted the same public attention as Cannon's - he hasn't been in Congress as long - it is just a matter of time before political cartoonists and late-night TV comics catch on.

Comments from Bishop's office two weeks ago attracted scant attention and were covered benignly on a back page of The Salt Lake Tribune. Little has been said about it since. But had the same logic come from Cannon, we'd still be having fun in commentary and cartoons at Cannon's expense.

The Associated Press story quoted Bishop's chief of staff, who claimed the state school board's opposition to vouchers is hampering Bishop's efforts to get federal education officials to be more flexible with their No Child Left Behind requirements.

This statement is wacky on several fronts. First of all, does anyone really believe that Bishop has any clout with federal education bureaucrats? What do you want to bet they call him "Bob" when passing off his calls to someone else.

But the more compelling argument for the idea that Bishop is a contender for the "Boob of Utah" title is that the U.S. Department of Education has no idea what he's talking about. "We're uncertain as to what Congressman Bishop is referring," agency spokeswoman Jo Ann Webb was quoted saying in the AP story. "There is no connection between state flexibility under No Child Left Behind and the voucher program."

About a month before that warped cerebration, Bishop attempted his best Will Rogers imitation on the floor of the House that probably solidified any negative beliefs some of his colleagues may have had about our beautiful state.

Responding to a Massachusetts representative who said the term "congressional experts" was an oxymoron, similar to "jumbo shrimp" or "Salt Lake City night life," Bishop tried to be funny.

"I want you to know in the (Salt Lake City) night life . . . on almost every corner you could find an ice cream parlor. If I ever wanted to forget my worries and drown my sorrows, I could easily have a second glass of warm milk. There are some nights we put our pajamas on before 8:00, the one without the feet. Even now we will occasionally stay up long enough to watch Letterman go through his top 10 . . . when we wanted to go out at night, we would take off the working Wranglers, put on the clean Wranglers and go down to 7-Eleven and find the new Slurpee flavors of the month."

This went on, and on, and on, probably while his colleagues were engaged in such activities as flossing their teeth or clearing their sinuses.

Deep into his laborious speech, he revealed it all was a joke and talked about some of the reality of Salt Lake City's night life and the variety of activities available. But by then, who would be listening?