Bank of America's Curl in Pole Position?

Updated with further detail on the Congressional committee hearing.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Bank of America(BAC) is still aiming to select its next CEO by Thanksgiving, and for those trying to read the tea leaves, there's reason to think the field may have opened up a bit for Chief Risk Officer Greg Curl.

The headline that Alvaro de Molina was resigning from the CEO post at GMAC Financial Services indicated one of the more prominent outsider candidates discussed since Ken Lewis made his intentions to leave BofA known on Sept. 30 was suddenly in the market for his next gig. But the inside scoop on de Molina's departure, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, was much less flattering than the press release with the Journal saying de Molina was ousted because of repeated clashes with regulators and board frustration with his leadership.

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Taking those details into account, the facts of GMAC's performance (it's lining up yet another TARP investment), and the belief that there is some internal resistance because of his recruitment of a considerable number of employees away from the bank since he vacated the CFO post in December 2006, and de Molina isn't likely to return to Bank of America.

The idea of Bank of America bringing in an outsider, which some view as necessary because of the cloud left over internal candidates by circumstances surrounding bonus and loss disclosures related to the Merrill Lynch deal, also took a hit over the weekend when the Journal reported that William Demchak, senior vice chairman and head of global corporate and institutional banking with PNC Financial Services(PNC), had spurned feelers from BofA because of compensation concerns. The same issue -- a factor because of the government's stake in the company and pay czar Kenneth Feinberg's resulting oversight -- is likely to crop up with any outside candidate.

What will happen with Bank of America's CEO hunt by the new Thanksgiving deadline?
	The board will pick an insider. The board will pick an outsider. The deadline will be extended again. Henry Paulson made BofA do the Merrill deal. Why not him? Psych! Ken Lewis will stay.