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Cass Sunstein to Head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

By cmooney on January 8, 2009.

i-898d26c00acce707068eafd0e97ec629-200px-Sunstein.jpgThat's the news from the Chicago Tribune. I'm interested to hear whether any environmentalists are going to be rattled by this choice. Sunstein is an ingenious scholar, and continues the whole "best and brightest" motif of the Obama administration--so welcome after so many years of Bush anti-intellectualism. But on the other hand, some of Sunstein's views on regulation are controversial, although certainly very thoughtful.

Important question: Will he roll back the Bush administration's overuse of the Data Quality Act?

By the way, I haven't read all of Sunstein's books, but I have read Republic.com, and it's really excellent and thought provoking. I think a lot of what we see in the blogosphere today--the grouping together of people into like-minded online groups (like the ScienceBlogs community to significant extent) where they then become ever stronger in their convictions--was predicted by Sunstein back in 2001. It seems to me this book is very necessary reading today.

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Politics and Science

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I have read Sunstein's "Nudge" and it's a readable book. It's also pretty interesting that Sunstein is married to Samantha Power, Obama's former senior advisor who resigned in the wake of her controversial remarks about Hilary Clinton. Maybe this is Obama's strategy to get her advice through the back door without ruffling feathers by naming her to an official position. Two birds with one stone.

I am beginning to have more faith that the Obama camp can actually deliver a bit of what they promised. If they don't, it will probably be the Democratic Congress that stands in the way. I am not happy with the glee that Durbin and the rest of the Illinois Congressional delegation showed today after meeting with Chu regarding NextGEN, but that is the way Congress works. It is all about appeasing their constituency.

Bush has showed us that you can screw things up through regulation. Maybe Sunstein can clean things up the same way.