The Wall Street Journal’s Kara Scannell and Susanne Craig take a long look today at the low-profile kept by Securities and Exchange Commissioner Christopher Cox during the Bear Stearns bailout. They lead with the amazing image of Cox actually attending a birthday party as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Federal Reserve hammered out the bailout’s details.

But what is the takeaway? Should the executive branch be restructured, as Paulson has suggested, so that the Federal Reserve has clear jurisdiction over investment banks? Or is Cox an especially limited SEC head who’s the exception to commissioners who have actively dealt with investment banks?

Paulson’s specific suggestions for bureaucratic re-shuffling have been widely panned. This looks like a thorny issue for the next administration. -MB

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