I Can Only Sputter

Mr. Diamond's credentials appear to be all academic. I do not know him personally, but just the thought of more academics in decision making roles seems like a bad idea.

Theorists are somehow unable to perform "fact-based reasoning?"

If you define theorists as people who can build models, then Narayana Kocherlakota is a theorist. Eric Rosengren is also a theorist by that definition. Regardless of what you want to see the Fed do, the ability to do theory does not exclude people from making reasonable judgements in any subjective opinion, since theorists are on both sides of the debate.

The delays on Diamond's confirmation are unconscionable; I don't think there is a single more qualified person to be appointed to the Board. He practically invented one of the two major approaches to the way we think about macroeconomic growth, he's the foremost expert in Social Security issues, and he wrote the seminal paper on the Beveridge curve, not to mention an extensive set of publications on inflation and monetary policy. If Peter Diamond's not qualified, nobody's qualified.