President Bush has tapped New York Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Barofsky to be a Treasury-based "special inspector general," i.e., to keep an eye on how the government spends its bailout money. Barofksy, a former lead prosecutor in the southern district's securities-fraud unit, is so far best known as the prosecutor who made former Refco chairman Phillip Bennett cry on the stand in the $2.4 billion accounting-fraud case against executives of the collapsed financial firm last year. He went to Penn and NYU. No word yet on whether he's as hot as Mr. Mason, but we're holding out hope. These are tough times; they should at least give us pretty faces.

BUSH PICKS US PROSECUTOR IN NY TO OVERSEE BAILOUT [NYP]