The Compleat List of CzarsBy Nancy Matthis | Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 6:05 am
Bypassing the authority of Congress, Barack Obama rules through czars — the beginnings of dictatorship. (Most recent update — Sept. 9.)
[The spelling of the title is a literary allusion to The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton, circa 1653, a staple of English literature. The variant spelling "compleat" signifies "quintessential," the be all and end all, the last word.
This is an updated list. The original post is below the fold. Normally, we write about something and move on, but so many people have been using this list for reference that we feel an obligation to keep it current. We cannot do this as a new post without being unfair to the many fellow bloggers who have linked to the URL of this post. Also, we have a policy of never erasing something that we have posted, because it confuses readers who come back looking for something they remember reading, and we put courtesy to our readers ahead of everything. To accomodate these two constraints, we will keep a current list above the fold continually updated, and leave the original post unchanged below the fold.
The 8/06/09 update reflects the impending departure of the cybersecurity czar, Melissa Hathaway, adds the new "disinformation czar" and clarifies the media caused ambiguity between the "auto recovery czar" and the "car czar" -- see full discussion of this in update following the original post.]
- Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) czar, Richard Holbrooke
- AIDS czar, Jeffrey Crowley [openly gay white man]
- Auto recovery czar, Ed Montgomery
- Behavioral science czar, position not yet filled
- Bailout czar, Herbert Allison Jr., [replaced Bush bailout czar Neel Kashkari, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability confirmed by Senate]
- Border czar, Alan Bersin
- Car czar, Ron Bloom [Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury , under Senate oversight]
UPDATE, 9/07/09: Obama announced his appointment of Ron Bloom as “senior counselor for manufacturing policy,” a move that will eliminate Senate oversight. This position has been dubbed “manufacturing czar” and so this listing moves to a different alphabetical location.
UPDATE, 9/08/09: My bad. Ron Bloom continues as car czar and takes the appointment as manufacturing czar. He will be double dipping. - Climate change czar, Todd Stern
- Copyright czar, not appointed yet
- Counterterrorism czar, John Brennan
- Cybersecurity czar, position will be vacant on August 21st [upon the departure of Melissa Hathaway]
- Disinformation czar, Linda Douglass [This is a new media buzz since our earlier list, a response by pundits to the White House request for informants: see Glenn Beck and Lew Rockwell]
- Domestic violence czar, Lynn Rosenthal
- Drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske
- Economic czar, Larry Summers
- Economic czar number two, Paul Volcker
- Education czar, Arne Duncan
- Energy czar, Carol Browner
- Food czar, Michael Taylor [a former Monsanto executive, or, the fox in charge of the henhouse]
- Government performance czar, Jeffrey Zients
- Great Lakes czar, Cameron Davis
- Green jobs czar, Van Jones [who has a communist background]
UPDATE, 9/06/09, Van Jones resigned after an exposé by Glenn Beck. - Guantanamo closure czar, Daniel Fried
- Health czar, Nancy-Ann DeParle
- Infotech czar, Vivek Kundra [Shoplifted four shirts, worth $33.50 each, from J.C. Penney in 1996 (source). His last day in DC government was March 4 but on March 12 the FBI raided his office and arrested two staffers.]
- Intelligence czar, Dennis Blair [Director of National Intelligence, a Senate confirmed position. He is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral]
- Latin-American czar, Arturo Valenzuela (nominee) [although this post is referred to as a czar, he is nominatied to be Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and so is subject to Senate confirmation. Voting on his confirmation was delayed to clarify his position on Honduras. Watch WaPo's Head Count to track status of confirmation.]
- Manufacturing czar, Ron Bloom,
formerlya “car czar” under Senate oversight, now reporting directly to the President.
UPDATE from Labor Day. - Mideast peace czar, George Mitchell
- Mideast policy czar, Dennis Ross
- Pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg
- Regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein
- Religion czar, aka God czar Joshua DuBois
- Safe schools czar, Kevin Jennings [appointed to be Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, a newly created post (that does not require Senate confirmation); openly gay founder of an organization dedicated to promoting pro-homosexual clubs and curricula in public schools]
- Science czar, John Holdren
- Stimulus oversight czar, Earl Devaney
- Sudan czar, J. Scott Gration
- TARP czar, Elizabeth Warren [chair of the [Congressional Oversight Panel for the Trouble Assets Relief Program; note that Herb Allison is frequently called the TARP czar]
- Technology czar, Aneesh Chopra
- Trade czar, Ron Kirk
- Urban affairs czar, Adolfo Carrion
- War czar, Douglas Lute [retained from Bush administration, married to Jane Holl Lute, currently a Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security]
- Water czar, David J. Hayes [a Deputy Interior Secretary and therefore subject to Senate oversight]
- Weapons czar, Ashton Carter [actually Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics and so subject to Senate confirmation]
- Weapons of mass destruction czar, Gary Samore
Positions being planned:
- Income redistribution czar
- Land-use czar
- Mortgage czar, formally “consumer financial protection czar” (source)
- Radio-internet fairness czar
UPDATE, 7/29/09: Mark Lloyd was appointed FCC diversity czar. - Student loan czar, to oversee a program of mandatory service in return for college money (source)
- Voter list czar
- Zoning czar
Obama has moved swiftly to concentrate power in the White House, bypassing the review of our elected representatives in Congress in most of the posts listed above. Even though cabinet positions are part of the executive branch, the cabinet secretaries must be approved by Congress, they are funded by Congress, and they can be called before Congress to testify. Most of these czars, on the other hand, are appointed by Obama at his sole discretion, and are answerable only to him. If subpoenaed by Congress, they can claim executive privilege.
On July 15, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) introduced H.R.3226, the Czar Accountability and Reform (CZAR) Act of 2009, with 34 co-sponsors. There is some comfort in knowing that there are still a few folk in the House of Representatives who are fighting for constitutional government.
This new list is alphabetized by the czar positions, to facilitate comparison with the excellent research on the duties of each office done by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton at Noisy Room. Below the fold is the earlier list sorted by the last names of the appointees.
