Washington ? The Senate’s top Republican urged President Bush on Wednesday to appoint someone who has “the confidence of the American people, the markets” to succeed Harvey Pitt, the embattled SEC chairman who resigned on Election Day.

The White House, relieved to see Pitt go, insisted his appointment last year was not a mistake despite his numerous missteps thought to have hurt investor confidence already eroded by corporate scandals.

Bush wants a Securities and Exchange Commission chairman who will “help crack down on corporate corruption that the president feels so strongly about and who also will continue Harvey Pitt’s very successful record of taking action against corporate corruption,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Still, he said, it could be weeks or months before Pitt was replaced permanently.

Pitt’s offer to end his turbulent 14-month tenure as the government’s top securities regulator removed one of the Democrats’ favorite targets. Pitt’s stumbles had been viewed as weakening the SEC just as the market was reeling from corporate debacles including Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and Global Crossing Ltd. and the economy wobbled.

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., due to become majority leader now that the Republicans have recaptured the Senate, said Pitt did the right thing by resigning. The SEC chairman must be someone “that has the confidence of the American people, the markets and both sides philosophically and politically,” Lott said.

Pitt attended a routine commission meeting Wednesday, listening to staff members and asking questions as they discussed proposals requiring attorneys to report company violations to a top executive.

The five commissioners later voted to tentatively approve the rules, then aides and security guards hustled Pitt out of the room and away from reporters.

Commissioner Harvey Goldschmid, a Democrat who had bitterly opposed Pitt’s selection of former FBI and CIA director William Webster to head a new accounting oversight board, said during the meeting that the last few weeks have been “a period of enormous pain” for the SEC.

Former SEC Chairman Richard Breeden was said to have been informally approached to replace Pitt, but declined. And former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has been mentioned for the post, but said he wasn’t interested.