dancing with the czars

From The American Thinker

The three dozen or so people that Barack Obama has surrounded himself with to handle this problem or that issue, and yet are not confirmed by the Senate or operating an agency created by Congress, are not really his “czars.” These people are, instead, his “commissars.” Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany both called those vague, undefined figures appointed by the Leader to carry out his intentions “commissars” (Hollywood never speaks of Nazi commissars for the same reason that it never notes that Nazi Party members called each other “comrade” – the pretense that Nazis and Bolsheviks were polar opposites rather than identical twins is too vital a myth to dispel.)

In our constitutional republic, government does not have a role in every part of life. That is why Congress has to create departments, agencies and administrations. Everything that the federal government does must, in some way, relate to its powers under the Constitution. The first cabinet offices dealt with clear cut federal duties – diplomacy, war, justice, money, and postal services. Before Congress creates a federal office, a threshold question is whether the Constitution allows the work of that office to be done by the federal government. That is the heart of limited government.

There is, for example, no Department to Promote Politically Correct Thinking. No Congress would ever pass a law creating such an entity. A terrified Reichstag or the Central Committee of the Communist Party, on the other hand, might well do that. In those totalitarian regimes, “government” does not really exist: the party exists or, rather, the party and the state in a hopeless confusion of purpose and function. The very independence of Congress, even a venal and silly Congress, is a natural check upon a party-state with a leader at its apex.

Afghanistan Czar – Richard Holbrooke

AIDS Czar – Jeffrey Crowley

Auto Recovery Czar – Ed Montgomery

Border Czar – Alan Bersin

California Water Czar – David J. Hayes

Central Region Czar – Dennis Ross

Climate Czar – Todd Stern

Domestic Violence Czar – Lynn Rosenthal

Drug Czar – Gil Kerlikowske

Economic Czar – Paul Volcker

Energy and Environment Czar – Carol Browner

Faith-Based Czar – Joshua DuBois