Sheila Bair, who didn't always fare well in the bureaucratic wars, has fared much better in the court of media opinion. As she exited the FDIC, an institution she left in much better shape than when she took over, pundits were quick to extol her many accomplishments.

Such praise may have hit its apex with an extended article published in the New York Times. "As an observer of the financial crisis and its aftermath, I have frankly admired most of what she tried to do. She was tough-minded and straightforward. On financial matters, she seemed to have better political instincts than Obama's Treasury Department, which of course is now headed by Geithner. She favored ‘market discipline'--meaning shareholders and debt holders would take losses ahead of depositors and taxpayers--over bailouts, which she abhorred."

The columnist went on to note: "I thought something else as well: With her five-year term as FDIC chairwoman drawing to a close--her last day was July 8--she never really got her due. The rap on her was always that she was ‘difficult'  and ‘not a team player.' There were times, in Congressional testimony, when she disagreed with her fellow regulators even though they were sitting right next to her. Her policy disputes with other regulators were legion; in leaked accounts, Bair was invariably portrayed as the problem."

In hindsight, she was among the few regulator who sincerity was never questioned. She certainly left no one thinking that she was a stooge for the industry. She did not spend the majority of her phone time speaking with top executives. There were others who will no doubt waltz into a lucrative job at a bank when their Washington days are over. She is not of that ilk, and that's refreshing.

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