WASHINGTON - Former Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell withdrew yesterday as vice chairman of a new commission to investigate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Democratic leaders in Congress named former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat and foreign policy expert, to replace Mitchell, who said he did not have adequate time to devote to the commission.
Mitchell, a former Democratic senator from Maine who served President Bill Clinton as peace envoy to Northern Ireland and the Middle East, said in a letter to Democratic congressional leaders that he could not afford to bow to requests that he sever ties to his New York law firm.
President Bush signed legislation last month to create the 10-member panel and named former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger to serve as chair. Republicans and Democrats in Congress each are appointing five members to the panel.
The appointments of such well-known figures as Kissinger and Mitchell demonstrated the seriousness with which the White House and Democratic leaders viewed the commission, despite Bush's initial reluctance to embrace an independent investigation. But critics suggested that Kissinger, who runs an international consulting firm, and to a lesser degree Mitchell, had so many potential conflicts of interest that they might be reluctant to uncover shortcomings in the intelligence community.
Hamilton earned bipartisan respect for his probe of the Iran-contra scandal under former President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and 1988. A member of Congress for 33 years, Hamilton now runs the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri said yesterday that they would also appoint Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, Rep. Tim Roemer of Indiana, former Watergate prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste and former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick.
Cleland was defeated in his re-election bid, and Roemer, a prime sponsor of the commission, did not seek re-election.
Ben-Veniste was chief prosecutor in the Watergate scandals of the early 1970s. He was chief counsel to Senate Democrats investigating the Whitewater imbroglio under Clinton and was an outside adviser to Clinton during the impeachment process. He is a partner in a Washington law firm.
Gorelick, a deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, now is vice chair of the mortgage lender, Fannie Mae.