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Obama: The czar of czars?
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Today on the Lou Dobbs show on CNN, Lou did an interview with a senator on the subject of "czars". I didn't know about this issue until I saw it on his show. A czar is like a political task force leader. Presidents have had them before for very specific roles. Reagan had three. George Bush Sr. had one. Clinton had either one or three. George Bush Jr. had over ten., which is a lot, although he is the guy who made an entire new department of government (DHS). How many czars does Barack Obama have? Obama has thirty-four czars as we speak.
Not only is this a huge amount, but seeing as he is less than a year into his presidency, there are probably plenty more czars on the way. He has a czar for economic issues. He has a "car czar" tasked with rebuilding Detroit. He has an energy czar. He has a Sudan (Darfur) czar. I think he has a terrorism czar. The list goes on.
The problem with these czars is that they are not elected positions nor are the appointed with the "advice and consent" of the Senate, as the Constitution requires for traditional appointments. Czars are not accountable to either Congress or the people. They can be appointed in a shrouded way, without the kind of background checking that the Senate does on other appointments, or of course, the Senate's approval (not that it would matter too much materially with the Democrat majority in the Senate). Czars can also carry out their work in a shrouded way, since they only answer to the president himself.
A couple of czars would not be an issue, in my opinion. However, 34 czars with more on the way is a problem. With enough of these guys, Obama could basically create a second governmental structure, one that is not accountable to anyone but himself. They are like cabinet secretaries, who are appointed by him and answer only to him (with Senatorial approval though). You may be wondering, if Obama has cabinet secretaries, such as a Secretary of Energy, why would he need an energy czar? Same name, right? I haven't figured this part out yet. When you find out, you tell me.
It's worrisome that Obama, who was a constitutional lawyer and prides himself on his own supposedly intricate and intimate understanding of the American democratic system, would create such a secretive puppet structure that is not accountable to anyone. No other president has had this many czars. I chalk it up to inexperience. Other presidents were more experienced, and some faced harder times than Obama is now facing, yet they managed with only a handful of czars.
Napoleon Bonaparte said you shouldn't ascribe to malice what can be explained by incompetence. Do I believe Obama is secretly trying to take over the federal government? No. I would say It's true in the sense that the Democrats want to maintain a crushing majority. But maybe Obama just doesn't know how to effectively engage his cabinet. No president has ever needed this many task forces. Doesn't Obama have the least political experience of all the presidents for the last 100 years? Maybe there is a correlation.
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