BENTSEN OUT, RUBIN IN AT TREASURY

Confirming rampant rumors that he was headed to Houston, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen resigned today. Named to replace him was longtime Wall Streeter and Clinton economic advisor Robert Rubin. Bentsen said he wanted to return to Texas to spend more time with his children and grandchildren and "return to the private sector . . . while I still had a spring in my step." Bentsen -- who leaves in two weeks -- served in the Senate for 22 years and ran as vice president in 1988 on the ticket headed by Michael Dukakis.His replacement, currently head of Clinton's National Economic Council, spent nearly three decades amassing a fortune at the Wall Street firm Goldman, Sachs & Co., and resigned as chairman to join Clinton in 1992. In Rubin, Wall Street gets an ally in a top post, says TIME business reporter Bernard Baumohl. Rubin will probably be an advocate for smaller government, lower long-term interest rates and smaller budget deficits -- positions that will serve him well in building bridges with the new Republican congressional majorities, Baumohl says. "Rubin has had far fewer dealings with Congress than Bentsen -- so these positions are important in building ties."