Business Notes Regulation

There are many reasons to go the extra mile in government service, but leave it to banking regulator L. William Seidman to come up with a new one: because the White House didn't want him to. When the curmudgeonly chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation stepped down last week at the end of a six-year term, he disclosed that he would have left last year but for the efforts of the Bush Administration to cashier him.

In the blunt style that particularly annoyed White House chief of staff John Sununu, Seidman declared, "I talked to them about getting out of here so they could put in somebody of their own. The next thing I knew, I heard the White House leaking that the President was trying to force me out." Fearing for the FDIC's independence, Seidman decided to stay. Such frank talk may have been the bane of Bush, but it could be the stuff of stardom. Starting this week, Seidman will serve as correspondent and commentator for CNBC, the financially focused cable channel.