David Leonhardt in the NYT writes of “the return of Larry Summers.”

Over the last two years, Mr. Summers has carved out a role unlike anyone else’s in theDemocratic Party. He has been something of a shadow economic minister, laying out in real time how a Democratic administration would have responded to the financial crisis. When other economists and policy makers have questions, they often call Mr. Summers.

He is also the centrist who has made it safe for other centrist Democrats to move to the left.

[Blogger: I find this a curious argument—while centrist economists seem to have moved to the left in the past couple of years, I’m not sure you can give Summers credit or blame for that.)

But Mr. Summers also has a habit of alienating some people who could have been his allies. His ill-considered, though also sometimes exaggerated, remarks about women and science are the best-known example. (For more on what he did say, go tonytimes.com/economix.)

If he can avoid such mistakes — and be careful to criticize ideas rather than people — he may find himself ideally suited to the moment.

That seems a fair assessment.

Leonhardt goes on describe Summers’ positions on the issues….but some of the descriptions are, well, a little gentle. Like when Leonhard writes of Summers’ position on regulation:

On this topic, he still sounds like a centrist Democrat. As Treasury secretary starting in 1999, he shepherded a couple of bills that helped deregulate financial markets, and he has made it clear that he doesn’t buy the notion that these laws caused the financial crisis.

As we know, Summers did a little bit more than that: he actively killed a proposal to regulate derivatives, one that likely would have, if not fended off the current crisis, certainly softened it…..