Senate Republican leader Trent Lott of Mississippi earlier named former Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash. [to the independent commission that will investigate 9/11]. On Monday he filled the last slot on the 10-member panel with John Lehman, who served as President Reagan's Navy secretary from 1981 to 1987. He is founding partner of the investment firm J.F. Lehman & Co.

Relatives had been hoping that former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., would be named for the position.

--AP

Oh sure, Tom Kean, Bush's choice to replace Henry Kissinger, is an old-fashioned moderate-to-liberal Northeastern Republican. And John McCain, who's been close to the families, likes Lehman. But let's not mince words. The headline is:

LOTT TO RELATIVES OF 9/11 DEAD: KISS MY ASS