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Oh Danny, This isn\’t Russia. Is this Russia? This isn\’t Russia… UPDATED

June 4th, 2009 by Kevin

The hilarious words of Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) in the even more hilarious movie Caddyshack never fails to leave me laughing.  But more and more I\’m starting to understand Ty\’s confusion over whether Danny Noonan had to do something.  I\’m not talking about the impending socialism, or even the loss of freedom\’s from an overreaching government, or even the government owned companies (want a People\’s Car eh comrade?).

No I\’m referring to the fact that we seem to have more czars than cabinet members.  Obama seems to create a new one every day, but already we have:

Intelligence Czar
Bailout Czar
Education Czar
Drug Czar
Border Czar
Health Care Czar
Cyber Czar
Car Czar
Energy Czar
Urban Czar

And now today a Great Lakes Czar, which officially gives the Obama Administration more than twice as many Czars as the entire reign of the Romanov Dynasty had in Russia.

Even the Democrats are starting to get nervous.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) became concerned enough to send a cautionary letter to Obama last week. At times, he said, past White House staffers have assumed duties that should be the responsibility of officials cleared through the Senate confirmation process. He cited President Bush\’s naming of homeland security czar Tom Ridge as an example.

To be fair, President Obama is not the first president to use the \”czar\” position.  Nixon was the first with his Energy Czar, and in fact one of Obama\’s current czars was originally appointed by President Bust.  The difference is in the extent at which Obama has used this concept.

The former Exalted Cyclops of the KKK is right to be concerned.  \”Czars\” are essentially super-aides that work across agency lines to push the administration\’s position in a certain field.  But they also subvert the basic building block of our system of government, checks & balances.

Now Checks & Balances is a concept that isn\’t taunt in public schools anymore (perhaps Obama can get his Education Czar on that), but it\’s a fundamental concept critical to the functioning of our government.  Each branch of the government holds powers that allow it to bitchslap (check) another branch if it starts getting too uppity (not balanced).  Congress retains the right of congressional oversight, which each cabinet member is accountable to.  Czars on the other hand are accountable only to the White House.

And Obama can\’t even use the excuse that there isn\’t an existing branch of government to handle these issues.

Intelligence Czar -> Department of Homeland Security
Bailout Czar -> Department of Treasury
Education Czar -> Department of Education
Drug Czar -> Department of Justice
Border Czar -> Department of Homeland Security
Health Care Czar -> Department of Health and Human Services
Cyber Czar -> Department of Commerce
Car Czar -> Department of Commerce
Energy Czar -> Department of Energy
Urban Czar -> Department of Housing and Urban Development

Now a cynical person might suggest that the Obama\’s narcissism is leading him to create new levels of government beholden only to him.  While \”czar\”-like positions do have their place they have been, and should be, exceedingly rare.  Situations where the full might of multiple agencies need to be quickly mobilized under one command to respond to a critical situation strikes me as a situation where a \”czar\”-line position could be justified.

It\’s why the cyber-czar sort of makes sense.  A cyber attack on our nation\’s infrastructure would need an immediate response from a variety of agencies.  Already having the command structure in place to do that does make some degree of sense.

But many of these positions are direct duplicates of an already existing Department fully dedicated to exactly that.  Education Czar and the Department of Education.  Energy Czar and the Department of Energy.  And seriously….the Great Lakes Czar?

It\’s pretty clear this is a concept that\’s being used soley to abuse and subvert the concept of Checks&Balances already in place in our government.  Not what you\’d expect from the most open and transparent administration ever is it?

[Crossposted at True North]

UPDATE : You couldn\’t make this up….now Obama is appointing a Pay Czar.

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