You know you have a dim view of Larry Summers when even his Harvard-based persecutors think you’ve gone too far.

Judith Ryan, the professor who led the campaign for a Faculty vote of no confidence in Summers, told The Crimson that the UC petition’s authors “have fallen prey to a simplification that became widespread in media reports…When all is said and done, we should be able to listen to views with which we don’t agree, and to debate them in a civil way.”

Well, obviously — though she could have followed her own advice in the first instance!

It hasn’t been quoted, but the petition that led to Summers’ disinvitation said Summers “has come to symbolize gender and racial prejudice in academia.” Ludicrous.