What if those who are crying out for federal oversight of insurance get their wish, but a Democrat is elected president of the United States--perhaps even another person named Clinton? Chances are that such a president would choose as Insurance Czar someone less than sympathetic to the industry--perhaps even Eliot Spitzer!

Luckily for insurers and brokers, New York's crusading attorney general is probably going to be too busy running his home state as governor to take the job. But luckily for Democrats, there are plenty of candidates out there for the new regulatory post who are just as hostile to the industry, such as two-time nemesis John Garamendi, insurance commissioner of California, or longtime gadfly J. Robert Hunter of the Consumer Federation of America.

You get my point. Concentrating power with one federal regulator would free carriers and brokers from pesky state regulations, but it might also leave them at the mercy of one really tough pooh-bah.