"Progressives" attacking Cass Sunstein's appointment from the Left

Cass is a true academic in that he is open minded and willing to discuss issues. I might not agree with him, but he is smart and willing to discuss any issue. My guess is that these progressives are unlikely to find anyone who could champion many of their views as well as Cass can. Cass probably agrees with them on a lot more issues than they realize, but they have so little understanding of what cost-benefit involves they think that anyone who is willing to consider both the costs and benefits from regulation is their enemy. Possibly that tells us something about how small they think the benefits from the regulations are. Anyway, here is something today from Bloomberg.

Cass Sunstein, the new president’s choice to oversee rules for everything from global warming to workplace safety, may be a regulatory sheep in wolf’s clothing.

Sunstein’s support for cost-benefit analysis, balancing the costs of proposed federal rules against their benefits, makes him look more like an industry-friendly Bush appointee than a crusader for reining in corporations, some supporters of President Barack Obama say.

As head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Sunstein, a Harvard Law School professor, would be the arbiter of debates on rules for auto safety, environmental protection, union organizing and dozens of other issues. Some critics question his commitment to imposing tougher standards on companies. . . .