You know how Brian Moynihan is now CEO of BAC? Apparently before he got the gig he was two seconds away from peacing out of that dump. According go the Journal, back December 2008 -amid merger craziness- the bank wrote a draft press release entitled “Brian Moynihan leaving the company.”

“I have enjoyed my time at Bank of America, but it is time to pursue new challenges,” Mr. Moynihan is quoted as saying in the draft.

Kenneth Lewis, now Mr. Moynihan’s predecessor, is quoted as saying: “we know he will do well at whatever he chooses to do.” Mr. Moynihan, he added, “has been an outstanding executive who has taken on and done well with every challenge we have thrown at him.”

Moynihan didn’t want the job managing the bank’s credit card business in Delaware and planned to resign, but Lewis convinced Moynihan to stay as general counsel and fired Timothy Mayopolous instead. And we all know how that ended for both Thain and Lewis.