By ALYSSA ROSENBERG, Government Executive
The Chicago Tribune reports that President-elect Obama's longtime friend, Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein, will take over the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which is part of the Office of Management and Budget. Sunstein has some experience in government, having served in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department, and has a highly developed theory of regulation. But he also would come into office wielding an intimate understanding of his boss.
It was Sunstein who gave the most coherent outline of Obama's theory of reconciliation between competing beliefs in a May 2007 New Yorker profile:
Sometimes, of course, there is no possibility of convergence -- a question must be answered yes or no. In such a case, Obama may stand up for what he believes in, or he may not. "If there's a deep moral conviction that gay marriage is wrong, if a majority of Americans believe on principle that marriage is an institution for men and women, I'm not at all sure he shares that view, but he's not an in-your-face type," Cass Sunstein, a colleague of Obama's at the University of Chicago, says. "To go in the face of people with religious convictions -- that's something he'd be very reluctant to do." This is not, Sunstein believes, due only to pragmatism; it also stems from a sense that there is something worthy of respect in a strong and widespread moral feeling, even if it's wrong. "Rawls talks about civic toleration as a modus vivendi, a way that we can live together, and some liberals think that way," Sunstein says. "But I think with Obama it's more like Learned Hand when he said, 'The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.' Obama takes that really seriously. I think the reason that conservatives are O.K. with him is both that he might agree with them on some issues and that even if he comes down on a different side, he knows he might be wrong. I can't think of an American politician who has thought in that way, ever."
Sunstein also has some fairly innovative thoughts about regulatory policy. He's particularly interested in finding ways to encourage people to make good decisions without demanding that they do so.
Liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias writes that the appointment shows Obama's dedication to elevating some rather obscure agencies. Appointing someone who is personally close to Obama -- and deeply familiar with his theory of governance -- to the office that oversees e-government initiatives might also be a further sign of the president-elect's commitment to using new media in governing.
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