Eight senators, including Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS), sent a missive to the Pentagon in June urging Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld not to support General Dynamics' $2.6 billion bid for Newport News Shipbuilding. The GD-NNS deal would create a shipbuilding monopoly that would hurt the Navy and taxpayers, the senators contend. Lott and several other signers represent districts home to shipyards owned by GD's rival Northrop Grumman, which also wants to buy NNS. "We are concerned that 10-15 years after...