All the President's Czars

Obama is subverting the Constitution by appointing "czars" who, unlike Cabinet positions, require no Senate confirmation and who report only to Obama, essentially creating a parallel or "shadow" goverment and appointing people who could never pass Senate oversight, not even in a Democrat-controlled Senate. As Michelle Malkin writes, it's not just the number of these czars that has gotten people's attention, it's issues such as superfluousness, conflicts of interest, criminal history, and the compromised quality of so many of them.

Putting the quality of appointments aside for a minute, the sheer number is disturbing enough. In other administrations, as many as five "czars" have been appointed by a president; most have had one or two. So far, Obama has appointed thirty-four. Just listing them is enough to scare anyone who believes in constitutional and representative government: Afghanistan czar, AIDS czar, border czar, car czar, climate czar, copyright czar, cyberspace czar, drug czar, economic czar, education czar, energy czar, executive pay czar, faith-based czar, Great Lakes czar, green jobs czar, Guantanamo closure czar, health reform czar, infotech czar, intelligence czar, Iran czar, Middle East peace czar, non-proliferation czar, Persian Gulf/Southeast Asia czar, regulatory czar, science czar, stimulus accountability czar, Sudan czar, TARP czar, terrorism czar, urban czar, war czar, and WMD and terrorism czar.

Senators and Congressmen on both sides of the aisle have expressed concern about Obama's appointments. In February, Senator Robert Byrd (D, West Virginia), known as the "Constitutional Conscience of the Senate," sent a letter to Obama, expressing his concern about the czar power grab by the executive branch: “As presidential assistants and advisers, these White House staffers are not accountablefor their actions to the Congress, to cabinet officials, and to virtually anyone but the president. They rarely testify before congressional committees, and often shield the information and decision-making process behind the assertion of executive privilege." Whatever happened to Obama's pledge to have the most transparent administration, evah?

One House Representative, Rep. Jack Kingston (R, Georgia) is trying to do something by sponsoring a bill known as the Czar Accountability and  Reform Act, H.R. 3226, which would "bar the use of appropriated funds to pay either the expenses or salaries of members of task forces, councils, or similar offices established by the president and headed by a person appointed inappropriately to such a post without Senate advice and consent." Of course, Queen Pelosi will make sure that the bill never sees the light of day--but for the sake of getting the failed attempt on record, Kingston's bill is notable. "I serve on the Appropriations Committee," said Kingston, "which is responsible for overseeing every dollar spent by our government, but I’ve yet to see a single one of Obama’s czars.”

So far these Obama appointments have received little notice in the media, which in itself is an indication that there's something nefarious going on here. Glenn Beck, bless his pointy tinfoil-hat head, is doing the best work of anyone, bringing attention to some of these people--self-avowed communist Van Jones, the "Green Jobs" czar, being one of the worst. Over the days and weeks I plan to post Czar profiles here in an attempt to educate myself about our new shadow government. It was Obama, after all, who said this: to see what he believes in, look at the people he associates with and surrounds himself with. We certainly need to take him at his word.

When the Left mocks people on the Right for saying, "We want our government back," the ObamaCzar scheme of slipping these people in through the back door, with no oversight from anyone but The One, is a prime example of what we are fighting against.

Update: Sunday, September 7, 2009. Van Jones resigns as Green Jobs Czar. That's 1 down, 36 to go.