In tapping Henry "Hank" M. Paulson, Jr. for his new Secretary of the Treasury, George Bush has literally taken a play from Richard Nixon's playbook. Paulson worked in the Nixon administration as assistant to John Ehrlichman, mastermind of the Watergate "Plumbers," from 1972-1973. Nixon asked for Ehrlichman's resignation in April, 1973. He was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury in 1975. He served 18 months in prison and was not pardoned.

The goal of Watergate was to undermine the Democratic Party and the opposition to the Vietnam war. Today, the unpopularity of the Iraqi invasion is a glaring parallel, as is Nixon's penchant for covert operations.

Paulson also served as staff assistant to the assistant to Secretary of Defense, Melvin Laird, from 1970-1972.

In a poorly kept secret, Bush attempted to conceal the impending change by lying. As recently as May 25, 2006, George Bush was asked if Treasury Secretary Snow was leaving. He replied: "No, he has not talked to me about resignation. I think he's doing a fine job."

During today's press briefing, Tony "Snowjob" Snow related:

"Q Do you have any tick-tock on the policy pick? When did the President reach out to him?

MR. SNOW: Yes, the tick-tock is the two of them met on the 20th of May and there was a conversation, and Hank Paulson accepted the job a day later. That was subject to clearance. It does take time, especially for a Senate-confirmable position, to complete those, so it did take time to get some of those clearances wrapped up.

Q So that's why there's been no announcement between May 21st and --

MR. SNOW: Correct."

Wall Street failed to be buoyed by the news of one of their own managing Treasury; the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P all closed considerably lower.