Several administration insiders, prominent outside Democratic economic advisers and a few Congressional heavyweights, all worry this is symptomatic of a process that isn’t working well. Summers, they argue, is brilliant on policy and ill-suited for a high-level staff job, which is what the head of the National Economic Council is.

"If you came up with 10 words to describe Larry, coordination and collaboration would not be two," says one person requesting anonymity who has worked with Summers extensively and admires his intellectual force. ...

Still, others say Summers too often is dismissive of fellow economic advisers ...

a) Hunt loses me when he argues that Summers is not as "effective" at delivering the message in public as his administration colleague Austan Goolsbee. Goolsbee seems like a fine fellow. But he's a too-honest, academic, market-oriented type, no? I've never heard it said (because in my experience it isn't true) that he's a "more effective" public mouthpiece than Summers. b) The common denominator in at least one of the  anonymous Craig-slagging stories and Hunt's anonymous Summers-slagging story: White House aide Tom Donilon, "a well-regarded political operative ... seen as an extension of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel." Just sayin'. ...

Update: Bruce Bartlett doesn't see Summers getting pushed out . ... 3:57 P.M.

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