When the colossal implications of the credit crisis first began to sink in with the American public, financial analysts, journalists, and stakeholders that run the gamut were asking “Where was the SEC?” Today, as the credit crunch continues to put tremendous pressure on Wall Street and Main Street alike, the question on the minds of those looking for solutions has evolved to “Where is the SEC?”

Financial crises breed financial uncertainty. And in uncertain times, Wall Street looks to its regulators for guidance. When the regulators are nowhere to be found, the crisis is amplified for the simple reason that more anxiety is factored into the system. When anxiety reaches fever pitch, public frustration shifts from the institutions at the root of the crisis to those who are responsible for overseeing them.

Now, the SEC’s abiding silence is leading influential lawmakers and industry insiders to begin speculating about the agency’s demise. And the longer that Chairman Christopher Cox remains mum on the topic of what to do next, the bigger the hole from which he and the other commissioners will eventually have to try and dig out becomes.

While the validity of gloomy prognostications about the SEC’s future remains in question, the agency should take no solace in the fact that it will probably survive what is just the latest crisis to hit Wall Street in recent years. The SEC is facing a branding crisis of epic proportions – brought on by the leadership vacuum it helped create.

Ironically, however, the congressional hearings that have been called to take the SEC to task for its lack of leadership present the very opportunity the agency needs to restore its public image and rebuild its brand – and to do so on the most public of stages.

Whether he knows it of not, Christopher Cox occupies the tallest and loudest bully pulpit in the financial arena. The time has come for him to use it and become the stabilizing force that the nation – and, in fact, the world – has been waiting for.