"Rep. Virgil Goode has written President Bush to ask him to consider naming someone other than Henry Kissinger to head a national commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

'We need somebody who's fresh and ready to go down any avenue for exploration,' Goode, R-Rocky Mount, told The Daily Progress of Charlottesville. 'I think you need somebody, that's interested and fresh and enthusiastic about it.'

Bush named Kissinger, 79, the day before Thanksgiving to lead a bipartisan 10-member commission established by Congress to investigate why the United States was not prepared for last year's terrorist attacks that left more than 3,000 dead. Former Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, was named vice chairman.

'I do not believe that Henry Kissinger is a good choice to head the September 11th Commission,' Goode wrote to the president. 'If the opportunity presents itself, I hope you would consider another person to head the commission.'

Kissinger, one of the bestknown diplomats of the 20th century, was the secretary of state in the Nixon and Ford administrations and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho for the peace agreement they reached that year.

But Goode compared Kissinger's appointment to former chief justice Earl Warren heading a national commission probing the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy.

Many critics attacked that commission's finding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and Goode said he wants the new commission to leave no angle unpursued in its probe.

'I just think they should get a fresher face and someone with vim and enthusiasm,' Goode said, adding that several constituents have similar views.

Del. Mitch Van Yahres, DCharlottesville, joined Goode in criticizing Kissinger's appointment. 'The hope, I have is that Mitchell can hold him down and make him honest,' Van Yahres said." (Associated Press, Roanoke Times, December 8, 2002)