Conason bought into that? Wrong! A once and future party hack. My brother-in-law is quite familiar with Kean from his time as a top administrator at Drew University and long time New Jersey resident. When Kean was appointed co-chair of the 9/11 Commission I called my brother-in-law and asked what he thought of the appointment. His answer was quick and direct: "He'll make it turn out the way they want". This more than anything has caused me to be highly sceptical of the veracity of that report.

For once Joe was a little too gentle on a Republican. We shouldn't forget the fiscal mess that Kean left behind when his time as NJ governor ended -- a mess for which Jim Florio took most of the fall.

As a native and resident of a neighboring state back when Keane was Governor of New Jersey, I have to say that none of this is really news. Keane was the Mitt Romney of his day; a handsome face, but when it came to integrity...to quote Jon Stewart, "eh, not so much".

He was a sleazeball Republican operator of the pseudo-moderate type. A servant of Big Business, first and last.

I'd hoped that age and impending death had inspired him to change his ways, but this whole "Path to 9/11" thing just proves the old adage: once a sleaze, always a sleaze.

It was really depressing to see Tom Kean lie to the cameras. He was eloquent during the hearings and seemed to take great pride in maintaining a united front with his democratic counterpart. He said that he wanted the committee to remain a viable entity to ensure that the things they found were corrected. What has he done now?

Now, the same man is just dumping garbage on democrats 'cause his precious Republican lapdogs are waiting to be charbroiled in November for doing a lousy job governing the country.

I don't think Tom Kean is guilty of being stupid. He was a good and respected governor, a major political operator.

I think he's just showing himself to be the same kind of scum we've come to expect from the Republican party. I do not understand why Republicans can't make their arguments without resorting to the equivalent of sticks and stones and lies. If their arguments are sound, why are they being so shrill?

Never saw that in him.

Now, I will defend one point for him, and that is being hired on as any type of consultant or executive producer for a movie or TV show is meaningless.

Example, most Sci-Fi shows have a science a consultant, who is overruled at any time for the flow of the script.

Now, his defending the lies is unforgivable, but hardly unexpected.

Bush and Cheney lied to the 9/11 Commission, claiming that Bush spoke with Cheney and granted Cheney authority to order civilian airlines to be shot down. Quite simply this never occurred, and Kean is the one who refused to allow that conclusion in the report. Instead, they adopted the language saying such a call could not be proved, when in fact it was proved such a call did not take place.

The country once believed, or at least a lot of us did, that the Supreme Court was above politics. Lo and behold in 2000 we learned, in a defining moment for this once great democracy,that party loyalty required payback for getting a black robe. So the Repug black robe types took a dive, delivered a stunning blow to their own integrity, to the reputation of the court, and mostly to our constitution. The illusion came to a sudden and unexpected end. We now know they don't stand for anything more than the dominance of their own kind.

So why should anyone be surprised that Kean Sr., a supposed man of probity and integrity, has a price? He may be just plain stupid, or going soft in the head, but he's making it quite plain that he's a Repug first, and everything else second.

I thought I had some respect for this man, but I no longer do.

serving on boards of republican controlled corpoartions ,he is nothing but a "CHEAP Crook " All one has to do is reda pages 5 & 6 of Without Precedent and you will see it was at the sercice of bush,card and rove and should have read without president as he allowed CARD to be president pro temp while bush went on vacation. Kean himself was on vacation and bought a "Global Phone so he could keep in touch with the white house from his remote vacation Island ? The man has lied from day one ..just read that and page 195 about the passports ?? He and Tenet, Rice ,Powell et al should be shot at dawn of yesterday joe bell 2 ellis st woburn ma 01801 781-932-1640

Your article has everything one needs to understand why a former politician, even one of impecible reputation, might sell his soul to lend authority to a partisan pack of lies. Tom Kean makes his money off United Healthcare, a great big fat health insurance company. If the Democrats take control of Congress and then the White House, it is almost certain that the nation will adopt some sort of single payer, federal or state government managed health insurance program now that private citizens who cant afford insurance, physicians sick of insurance hassles and employers who cant afford insurance for their employees are all on the same wavelength.

The health insurance industry despised Bill and Hillary Clinton for their attempts to fix the health care crisis in the mid 1990's. Nothing has changed. The Republican Party is the best friend of the rip off artists who take money from healthy people who will never get sick and who refuse to insure those who probably will. The federal government is the one who insures the nation's sick--the elderly and disabled.

If Kean and Co. have financial troubles now, they are nothing compared to what they will be if the party in power becomes the Democrats. Maybe he gets his $600k a year for doing things like keeping Republicans in office.

The religious right and other ideological groups are finally beginning to wise up to the fact that a bunch of money interest groups like Big Oil and the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Health Insurance Industry have been giving lip service to right wing ideology for the sole purpose of maximizing their corporate profits.