Another 9/11 panel member backs McCain

John McCain continues to try to chip away at the Sept. 11 aura surrounding Republican rival Rudy Giuliani.

On the heels of announcing the endorsement of 9/11 Commission co-chairman Thomas H. Kean, McCain this morning announced the support of a panel member, former Navy Secretary John Lehman.

"I am proud to support John McCain for president," Lehman said in a statement issued by the McCain campaign. "Having worked with John McCain for over twenty years -- from the Reagan administration through to the 9/11 Commission -- there's no doubt in my mind that he is the right man to lead as commander in chief today."

Giuliani, New York's mayor during and after the 2001 terrorist attacks, has built much of his political persona from that experience that made him Time magazine's "Person of the Year."
But the 9/11 Commission criticized parts of New York's preparedness for the attacks, and McCain now has the support of its co-chairman and two members, Lehman and former US Senator Slade Gorton of Washington state.