When President Bush nominated Sandy Baruah as the new head of the Small Business Administration last week, we noted that the nomination might not go down smoothly. A member of the Bush administration since 2001, Baruah is already being fingered as more partisan hack than small business advocate by some business groups, and Democrats haven't been terribly kind either.

Baruah's politics aside, the Wall Street Journal's Independent Street Blog poses an interesting question this morning about his experience: Should an SBA Chief Have Experience As A Business Owner?

Baruah spent the past several years working in for the U.S. Commerce Department, and previously operated a consulting firm in Portland, Oregon that worked with companies like Disney and Intel. Like the previous head of the SBA, Steven Preston, he has bureaucrat and corporate written all over him—something small business groups hated. And let's not forget that Preston's record as SBA chief was razed by an article in the New York Times earlier this month suggesting that he did little to solve any of the agency's problems.

At first blush, it makes sense that the head of the SBA should have at least worked with small business in some capacity. Having relevant experience is pretty much a requirement for getting a job for most of us—or at least outside the house of mirrors that is government. And while government officials often oversee departments where they have no experience, sometimes the results are disastrous.

But on the flip side, is it truly necessary for the SBA head to have operated a small business to fully understand the problems faced by entrepreneurs?

I'm (kinda) on the fence. What do you think?