A Regular Guy

Poor Cass Sunstein. Now back at Harvard Law School, for the past four years he was the nation's regulatory czar.

Here's the sort of comment he gets from the left:

"Sunstein left behind a muddled regulatory approach that appeared to buy into a phony, largely Republican agenda that regulations were job killers but not life savers," said Jeffrey Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a whistleblower group.

Here's the sort of comment he gets from the right:

So....would you rather be ruled by Montgomery Burns of The Simpsons, or Cass Sunstein of Nudge fame?  [....]  I know who’d I’d pick. Now, is it release the hounds! Or, release the regulators!

I don't happen to believe just because you're attacked by liberals and conservatives you must be doing something right, but does Cass deserve all this calumny?  I'm not familiar with most of his judgments in office, but he seemed to at least be trying to make prudent decisions, balancing the interests of both sides.  It's just that neither side wants that balance, they want it all their way.

(As some readers know, Cass Sunstein is a friend of mine, but I don't believe he reads this blog and even if he did I wouldn't say what I don't believe.)