Senator Patrick Leahy says he wants President Bush to consult with him when the prez is deciding who will replace Attorney General Alberto "Gonzo" Gonzales.

Well, consult this. According to NBC and other Washington sources, one of the names being floated around D.C. today is that of George Terwilliger III, a former Deputy Attorney General during Daddy Bush's administration and the Acting Attorney General at the end of the Bush One presidency. He's currently in private practice in the nation's capitol, and an occasional guest on TV talk shows.

Here's the dilemma for Leahy. Terwilliger is a former federal prosecutor with a distinctly Vermont connection: The man was U.S. Attorney in Vermont for four years, from 1987 to 1991. Leahy also voted to confirm Terwilliger to the Number Two spot at Justice in 1992.

Terwilliger, in his time here, was seen by some as a tough-guy prosecutor. The law enforcement community loved his aggressive pursuit of the illegal drug trade and his embrace the Zero Tolerance punishment policy that was all the rage at the time. Others saw him as too heavy handed and sexist. During Terwilliger's 1992 confirmation hearing, a woman attorney in Burlington told the Senate Judiciary Committee of the time he responded to her announcement that she had some interesting news to tell him by saying "Are you pregnant?"

Another Terwilliger negative, from Leahy's vantage point, is that he headed up the GOP legal team that won the legal battle over the disputed votes in Florida after the 2000 election that put Bush II into the White House.

That may be enough to sink him, but what if? What if the trial balloon with Terwilliger's name on it is the one Bush decides to pull down and offer as his choice for AG?

-- Sam Hemingway