Making the Leap in Business News

The person who's most bummed:

"Lt. Gov. Diane Denish had been preparing to succeed Richardson in the governor's office once his confirmation as commerce secretary came from the Senate," the Albuquerque Journal reports.

Tim Kaine may not have made much political sense as VP, but the WP among others reports:

"Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will become chairman of the Democratic National Committee later this month, serving as the top political messenger for Barack Obama's administration even while finishing his final year in the governor's mansion, several sources said."

Catching up after some time off . . . and sometimes it just pays to skip the interim stories. Such as this AP piece:

"Sen. Bill Clinton? Sen. Mario Cuomo? Don't completely rule it out. The former president and the former New York governor are among several boldface names being touted as possible 'caretakers' for New York's Senate seat -- people who would serve until the 2010 elections but wouldn't be interested in running to keep the job."

Which led to this New York Post story:

"Gov. Paterson yesterday roundly rejected the idea of appointing a caretaker to fill Hillary Rodham Clinton's soon-to-be vacant Senate seat -- all but ruling out the prospect that an elder statesman, like former President Bill Clinton or ex-Gov. Mario Cuomo, could get the nod."

Never mind.

To the pile of Bush farewell pieces, add this one by National Review's Byron York:

"George W. Bush leaves office with a job-approval rating that once soared to historic highs, then fell slowly but steadily for five years before settling, in the last couple of years, into lows that no president has ever experienced for so long. The president's final Gallup approval rating of 2008 is 28 percent; a number like that means some core Republicans don't approve of Bush's performance, and even among the many in the GOP who still approve, there are a number who are ready to see the president go.

"Bush knows that. The White House staff knows it. But the president's political fortunes haven't affected the intense loyalty that those who know him best feel for him. The people who have worked with George W. Bush in the White House for many of these past eight years have seen a different man from the one reflected in so much negative press coverage. And as they prepare to leave on January 20, their feelings for him are, if anything, stronger than when they arrived."

Frank Rich, on the other hand, is less nostalgic about the man who's given him so much material:

"We like our failed presidents to be Shakespearean, or at least large enough to inspire Oscar-worthy performances from magnificent tragedians like Frank Langella. So here, too, George W. Bush has let us down. Even the banality of evil is too grandiose a concept for 43. He is not a memorable villain so much as a sometimes affable second banana whom Josh Brolin and Will Ferrell can nail without breaking a sweat . . .

"The joke was on us. Iraq burned, New Orleans flooded, and Bush remained oblivious to each and every pratfall on his watch. Americans essentially stopped listening to him after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, but he still doesn't grasp the finality of their defection. Lately he's promised not to steal the spotlight from Barack Obama once he's in retirement -- as if he could do so by any act short of running naked through downtown Dallas. The latest CNN poll finds that only one-third of his fellow citizens want him to play a post-presidency role in public life."

Which nicely sets up this final item:

"Another President Bush?

"Perhaps so, says former president George H.W. Bush, who has already seen one son, George W., serve in the Oval Office. The nation's 41st president said yesterday that he would like to see a second son, Jeb, be president one day."

He hasn't exactly given us time to miss the Bush family.