FDIC chief Sheila Bair, destined to become a hero in the eyes of future historians for bucking Wall Street, is pushing for a shakeup of Citigroup's top management.

Bailout recipient Citigroup is balking, naturally, carefully noting that the FDIC is its "tertiary" boss, behind the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve.

The bank conglom's CEO, Vikram Pandit, now has to scramble to survive — at least until he can shed government supervision and resume paying big bonuses and salaries to himself and his crew.

Bair, a GOP appointee who used to work for Bob Dole, stood up late last year for a bailout of commoners instead of banks, clashing with Hank Paulson. Nevertheless, she and fellow pro-regulator Paul Volcker have been marginalized by the Obama administration, relegated to the back bench in favor of such anti-regulation types as Larry Summers.