And The SBA's Next Chief Is...

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...Magic Johnson?

Perhaps not, but that's who Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council would pick. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal blog Independent Street, she outlined Magic's qualifications, as summarized by reporter Kelly Spors: "He's started a string of successful businesses, could draw celebrity attention to a stodgy federal agency, cares about helping the disadvantaged and urban revitalization and aligns himself with smart people." Says Kerrigan, "Even if it's something that he'd consider doing short term, I think it would be incredibly beneficial to the agency and small business."

If not Magic, then who? The Washington Post reports one name under consideration belongs to Annette Taddeo, a Colombian native who started LanguageSpeak, a translation firm in Miami and recently tried, unsuccessfully, to dislodge longtime Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. According to the Post, Los Angeles businesswoman Monica C. Lozano had been in the running, but is no longer. And the Washington Blade reports that Fred Hochberg, one of Obama's SBA transition team leaders and a former deputy administrator for the agency, is also being vetted for the job. If so, that makes the blueprint he published under the auspices of the Center for American Progress even more oracular.