President Obama or Czar Barack?

June 25, 8:48 AMWichita Independent ExaminerGeoff Caldwell

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AP Photo/Ron Edmonds

President Obama's fascination with “Czars” and proliferation of appointing such is passed off by his supporters as just a new way of doing business; a “cut through the bureaucracy let's get things done approach.”

Others, (this writer included) couldn't disagree more.

Wikipedia lists more than twenty and still counting. And if you don't trust Wikepedia, Steve Holland of Reuters writes:

“Name a top issue and President Barack Obama has probably got a "czar" responsible for tackling it.
A bank bailout czar? Herb Allison. Energy czar? Carol Browner.
There's a drug czar, a U.S. border czar, an urban czar, a regulatory czar, a stimulus accountability czar, an Iran czar, a Middle East czar, and a czar for both Afghanistan and Pakistan, which in Washington-speak has been lumped together into a policy area called Af-Pak.
There are upward of 20 such top officials, all with lengthy official titles but known in the media as czars, and next week there will be one more, when Obama appoints a czar for cyber-security who will be charged with improving the security of computer networks.”

I find it troubling that the candidate who promised to post bills five days before signing and have the most transparent administration in history (still waiting for him to deliver on those two) is appointing so many aides outside the accountability sphere. These “czars” undergo no Congressional review and fly in the face of one of our most fundamental principles: separation of powers.

I find it ironic that the candidate of “change” and “openness” forms a Presidential apparatus more akin to Richard Milhous Nixon than his so often compared to Abraham Lincoln.

Merriam-Webster online defines the following:

Czar: 1. emperor; specifically: the ruler of Russia until the 1917 revolution 2: one having great power or authority.
Independent: 1. not dependent: as a (1): not subject to control by others: self governing

My angst with the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania avenue is his desire for the former while I think the latter has worked quite well these past 200 plus years.

A cabal of czars may be the Chicago way, but it's certainly not the American way.
 

Author's note:  The above column is a preview to this Sunday's "Blog Off" in the   Joplin Globe. 

What's a blog off?  Kind of a modernized soap box in Hyde Park.  A topic/question is put forth by our editor Carol Stark and then we're off to our keyboards to shout out to the world (or in our case the Sunday Globe subscribers).  A blending of the online edition with the print edition, something much in the discussion today.

So save this Globe Editorial Page to your favorites and come Sunday check out the other soap boxes.  You may not agree with all the opinions, but I assure you, there WILL be opinions.

Updated link to the four articles:
Czar Blog Off
For more on Obama and his "czars":
Reuters
Houston Libertarian Examiner
Canada Free Press
L.A. Times