Blogs > Cliopatria > Summers Follow-up

Nov 5, 2008

Summers Follow-up


by Cliopatria


A follow-up on my earlier post about Larry Summers: one of Summers' Harvard faculty detractors takes to the pages today of Talking Points Memo. After bringing up Summers' management skills, the (anonymous) correspondent--just as was done in the crusade to purge Summers--darts into an ideological attack:"Never mind that he and Rubin are Wall Street cronies who have enjoyed the revolving door between government and lucrative non-government positions, and were responsible for a big part of the deregulation (especially internationally) that led to the current crisis."

The A.C. concludes:"Things are so much better now that he's gone." For those who led the purge against Summers, that's undoubtedly true--it must be pleasant to no longer have a president willing to challenge academic groupthink.


comments powered by Disqus

More Comments:

Les Baitzer - 11/6/2008

I agree with you on the Marshall piece.

I meant to add to my previous comment that I also believe Obama will not appoint Summers. My sense of Obama is that he will endeavor to appoint persons without "baggage," and even the most open-minded assessment of Summers should allow that he definitely has baggage.

Jeremy Young - 11/6/2008

Attacking Summers on ideological grounds for the position of President of Harvard is inappropriate, as that is supposed to be a non-ideological position. Attacking him on ideological grounds as a potential Secretary of the Treasury is entirely appropriate, as that is a partisan and ideological position.

That said, I like Summers and I'm not convinced he'd be half bad as Treasury Secretary.

Ralph E. Luker - 11/6/2008

Josh Marshall sums it up pretty well.

Les Baitzer - 11/6/2008

While I would agree with you, Ralph, that Summers "was not just a victim of Arts and Sciences political correctness, the article you link has dots connected with invisible ink.

I think its author as much as admits that, and as Alan Dershowitz said. "Once people made up their minds they wanted to get rid of Summers, they were dragging up anything." That explanation seems more plausible to me.

I corresponded with a longtime Harvard professor shortly after the incident. He attended the faculty meetings and is an avowed foe of the political correctness cult on the Harvard faculty.

His sense of the ouster was that, while it was clearly driven by the Arts and Sciences PC crowd, the moderate faculty members were more persuaded by Summers' management style. While I am sure he was aware of the Russia incident, he never once mentioned it.

Ralph E. Luker - 11/5/2008

It seems to me that Summers' potential appointment as Secretary of the Treasury is *not* an obvious one. He obviously does lack people skills, as the current Secretary does. And he was not just a victim of Arts and Sciences political correctness. As University President, Summers made some very serious misjudgments.