Obama Creates More Czars Than The Russian Monarchy Did In 300 Years
It has finally happened. With yesterday’s naming of Border Czar Alan Bersin, the Obama administration has by any reasonable reckoning passed the Romanov Dynasty in the production of czars. The Romanovs ruled Russia from 1613 with the ascension of Michael I through the abdication of Czar Nicholas II in 1917. During that time, they produced 18 czars. While it is harder to exactly count the number of Obama administration czars, with yesterday’s appointment it seems fair to say it is in now certainly in excess of 18.
In addition to Bersin, we have energy czar Carol Browner, urban czar Adolfo Carrion, Jr., infotech czar Vivek Kundra, faith-based czar Joshua DuBois, health reform czar Nancy-Ann DeParle, new TARP czar Herb Allison, stimulus accountability czar Earl Devaney, non-proliferation czar Gary Samore, terrorism czar John Brennan, regulatory czar Cass Sunstein, drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, and Guantanamo closure czar Daniel Fried. We also have a host of special envoys that fall in the czar category including AfPak special envoy Richard Holbrooke, Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell, special advisor for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia Dennis Ross, Sudan special envoy J. Scott Gration and climate special envoy Todd Stern. That’s 18.
This is a very conservative estimate, however. I will allow you to pick whom you would like out of the remaining candidates. For example you could count de facto car czar Steve Rattner even though the administration went out of its way to say they weren’t going to have a car czar… before he ultimately emerged as the car czar. You could count National Director of Intelligence Dennis Blair, often referred to as the intelligence czar, although you might not want to because his job has a different kind of status on the org chart. I’m not going to count Paul Volcker who was referred to as Obama’s economic czar because Obama is not making much use of Volcker (at least according to reports).
But you certainly might want to count people deemed by the media to be the “cyber security czar” or the “AIDs czar” or the “green jobs czar” even if there are reasons to quibble about the designation of one or two of them. I also won’t count Michelle Malkin’s designation of White House science advisor John Holdren as “weather czar” because as a matter of principle I won’t count anything that horrifying woman does. Nonetheless you could certainly call the talented Holdren the nation’s science “czar” without stretching things.
The point is, disqualify who you may for your own list, there are still plenty of czars on the bench who will step up to make the comparison work in favor of Team Obama, if you think have lots and lots of czars is actually something in favor of Team Obama. (And to be fair: they didn’t create all these slots…just a lot of them.)
Personally, I think from a purely process standpoint all this czarism is a risky business that ends up producing bureaucratic bottlenecks, tensions and inefficiency when not managed extremely carefully. For now we will give them the benefit of the doubt that they will manage it well. Though please, please guys, stop now that you are ahead, now that you are officially the most prolific czarist dynasty in history.
For the record, the czars produced by Team Romanov were: Michael I, Alexis I, Fyodor III, Ivan V, Peter the Great, Catherine I, Peter II, Anna, Elizabeth, Peter III, Ivan VI, Catherine the Great, Paul I, Alexander I, Nicholas I, Alexander II, Alexander III, Nicholas II. For the purposes of giving the Russians an even chance against the president, I am including both the original Romanov line and the descendants of the Holstein-Gottorps, who kept the Romanov name. I am not including the regency of Sophia, although if you want, go ahead. Our team still wins. (Although, I’ll admit it, it is almost as hard of tracking the Russian succession as it is the structure of our own government these days.)
 |
|
Side-stepping the confirmation process to get cronies into the power positions they would otherwise never get approved for…. our (ehem) president…. the transparent one. No confirmation hearings, no vetting, just a naked power grab by the executive branch….. all when he has a willing congress controlled by dems. Anyone see a problem here?
They’re setting up their kingdom on the dime of the American taxpayers who are supposed to be part of a democratic republic. Excellent article.
I don’t think you mentioned how well it turned our for “Nicky” and his family. When they were shaken awake in the middle of the night and led downstairs toward a small windowless room in the basement, he may have turned to his wife and said, “so far, so good.” Which would, in turn, remind me of the guy who jumps off a 50 story building, and 30 flights into the fall thinks . . . “so far, so good.”
No shit.We all know how well that worked out for them.
only pussies need czars
They aren’t Czars… they’re Capos.
the capos are in addition to the groups funded by soros, sandlers, bing, and progressive insurance Lewis and their friends. We have a deep shadow govt of hyenas helping to drag our strong nation down.
Ya think Paul Volcker might be regretting his support for Obama?
Hope and change? Now that is funny.
Why?
Volcker is a Woodrow Wilson style internationalist and collectivist as are the rest of the followers of Barry the Red.
I heard Obama will be forcing GM to produce one vehicle only called…
O’Czar!
A Czar in Every Garage!*
No keys, just jump in and tell Czar where you’d like to go. Czar will contact gov’t officials and environmental watchdog groups to see if it’s necessary for you to travel. If not, you will be politely ordered to return to your home and wait for further instructions. If approved, sit back and enjoy the ride. We’ll be picking up other non-approved citizens along the way. It may add to your total out time, but it’s worth it, feel proud that you are saving the earth from doom. Do be aware however, we will instantly calculate your impact on the environment plus the goods or luxuries you purchase with each trip and withdraw all applicable taxes, fees and carbon-credits from your bank account, which makes your life easier and your conciseness clearer, just like the air you breathe. So relax and enjoy the ride, Obama’s in the Driver Seat!
*One garage per 16 city blocks or 1/1,000 citizens. Municipality populations below 1,000 will co-op with nearest towns, garage located half distance between towns. Rural citizens will be offered to move to nearest population center or offered to move to nearest population center. Only gov’t approved elite citizens excluded. Subject to change without notice.
What’s a “bank account” in ObamaWorld?
That would be the National Socialist Bank of Obama…. you know, the ONE bank that consolidated all others, the ONE bank that your paycheck automatically goes to.
…and in paycheck, I mean the gov’t approved wages for your assigned occupation.
CORRECTION: GM CEO Barack Obama just changed the vehicle name to OnCzar!
Wages?
You mean allotments?
A government issued ‘debit’ card to be used for government approved ‘purchases’ should suffice.
I probably should leave Barry alone awhile though… at least till he responds to my letter regarding the intransigence of the local GM/Obama dealer in my recurring warranty issues on my POS hybrid Escalade.
Wages…allotments…whatever makes you FEEL better.
BTW, how dare you drive an Escalade, even if it’s a hybrid. Those are for gov’t approved elitists only.
I’m ‘undercover’.
ssshhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! I’ll keep your secret.
Hey! Happy Earth Day Every Day to you Sully! Stay Green, Stay Blue!
(geezus, I think I thew out my back saying that)
YEE-HAAA!! Earth day every day!!
All we need is Barry to sing (I’m gonna) ‘TURN OUT THE LIGHTS, THE PARTY’S OVER!’
He’ll be the electricity NAZI.
“NO MORE GO JUICE FOR YOU!”
I probably shouldn’t blog from a barstool.
Barstool is the best place for blogging. Cheers!
Czar is a code for tax cheat. I think the dumb one gets a stiffy when he hears czar thats why he has so many czars. Michelle is likely the bedroom or sex czar.