After looking for a while there like a shoe-in, Symantec's outgoing CEO John W Thompson is NOT going to be secretary of commerce in the Obama administration.

Instead the new president crossed party lines again and picked Republican Senator Judd Gregg from New Hampshire.

Presumably Mr. Gregg is up to date on his taxes unlike three of Mr Obama's other cabinet nominees, two of whom have now quit the field. Obama lost his first choice for commerce secretary, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, to a corruption probe related to state contracts.

Presumably the governor of New Hampshire will feel no itch to award Mr Gregg's seat in the Senate to the highest bidder like the ex-governor of Illinois tried to do with Mr. Obama's seat.