The New York Times reports that "General Motors ended its search for a chief executive on Monday by naming Edward E. Whitacre Jr., its chairman and interim chief, to the job permanently, a person with knowledge of the decision said Monday."

And with that, GM's chairman will now be the company's permanent CEO. None of this is to cast stones at Whitacre's ethics or competence, or the work he's done at GM so far, but here's the truth: it is a pretty universally held principle of corporate governance that separating the chairmanship from the CEO is a good idea.

Speaking at Texas Lutheran University, General Motors (GRM) chairman Edward E. Whitacre Jr. said that the company would be able to pay back all of its government loans -- soon!

"There is a sense of urgency at G.M. to repay the money we owe as soon as possible," Whitacre said. "Can G.M. pay back its loans? You bet. I can't tell you when but it won't be very long and it's sooner than you think."

Ed Whitacre, the current AT&T (NYSE: T) CEO, has been running one or more of the Bells for a long time. He ran SBC since 1990 when it mergered with AT&T. In June, he hits retirement age. To no one's surprise, his No.2, Randall Stephenson, will move up to Chairman & CEO. Stephenson was chief operating officer at SBC before the merger. He was both controller and CFO before he took over operations.

Whitacre goes out on top. He engineered the merger between SBC and AT&T, and then took over BellSouth again. He has come close to re-assembling the original AT&T. He leaves with a $158.5 million retirement package.

Over the last two years, AT&T's share price is up almost 70%. The merger with BellSouth has gone well. AT&T's first-quarter 2007 reported net income was $2.8 billion, up from $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2006, and reported earnings per diluted share were $0.45, versus $0.37 in the year-earlier quarter. The company's wireless operations, renamed AT&T Wireless, did particularly well.

One question will dog Whitacre's legacy. It is whether he moved quickly enough into fiber-based high speed internet to take TV and broadband customers away from cable companies. Cable has been converting large numbers of telecom voice customers to VoIP.

But, that is Stephenson's problem now.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.