Czar Nation

It is a welcome relief that one of the most virulent people to ever occupy a high government office has resigned today. For those of you who don’t know, Van Jones was Obama’s Green Jobs “Czar”. He is also an avoided communist and given his own statements an apparent overt racist. He resigned amid a furor over his various past statements, including those that accuse the Bush administration of being culpable in the 9/11 attacks on America. As readers of my blog know, I have been a harsh critic of George Bush for good reason. However, anyone who accuses the President of the United States of being in cahoots with the terrorists who killed more than 3,000 Americans has no place in legitimate public discourse.

Van Jones isn’t the only issue. Obama has appointed 32 “Czars” to his administration. What is a “Czar” anyway??? A Czar was a dictatorial ruler of Russia. Obama has 32 of them.

The Constitution requires Congressional approval of high ranking executive branch appointments. Obama has skirted the requirement by subjugating his official cabinet-level appointments to 32 advisors, known as "Czars", who officially don’t have any constitutional role, but nevertheless have enormous power and influence in the government.

Obama isn’t the first person who appointed a “Czar” to a high profile government position. Reagan had a Drug Czar. Bush had a Health Czar. Although these and other positions were ill-conceived, they were limited and mostly put in place for political marketing reasons – hey, look we’re trying to do something about this entrenched problem (shhh... that the government probably created and can’t possibly solve)

The Obama administration has taken advantage of this precedent to circumvent the Congress and Constitution altogether by appointing 32 “Czars” that in many cases seem to be superior to the constitutionally allowed Cabinet Secretaries, which require Congressional approval.

I’m old adage kind of guy and there is on old adage that is very instructive here -- give someone an inch and they will take a mile. We should have objected strenuously when the first “Czars” were appointed in prior administrations. We didn’t and this is what we would up with today -- an adminstration full of petty tyrants put in place without any public scrutiny whatsoever.

So, good riddance to the left-wing looney Van Jones. 1 down and 31 to go. The larger challenge is how to fix the long-term damage this has inflicted on our republic.