You Don't Have to be a Czar, Baby. . .

I don't really have any position on "czars." I find it to be a puzzling moniker for a sub-cabinet department head, what with it's imperialist Russian connotation, but whatever. I remember (latter day saint) Ronald Reagan having a czar or two, Bill Clinton too. And not surprisingly, George W. Bush enlarged the number of czars beyond his predecessor.

By now, a precedent has been set. Presidents are in the habit of continuing previous Presidents' conventions, and it is not unusual for them to expand them. So, the practice of naming czars for this and that has continued into the Obama Administration. As is now usual though, right-wing world has found themselves in an uproar over President Obama's "unprecedented"--and un-Constitutional, they argue--use of czars. It really doesn't matter that Dubya did it too, IOKIYAR. Especially if you are Glenn Beck.

Latest Faux Outrage: Who Czar All These People?

Image from MSNBC

The current right-wing bogeyman is apparently the "czar." Whenever anybody is put in charge of anything in the government, for some reason the media--and some politicians--have taken to calling them czars. Why not tsars? I don't know. But somebody in right-wing world has done a count, and there are apparently 32 czars operating under the Obama Administration. Thanks to the ramblings of people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, this has the wingnuts in a lather. How--in 'Murica--can we allow this to happen?

I personally don't particularly like the word, and have wondered how it is we ever adopted it, given its Russian connotations. But to think this is a further step in President Obama's road to fascism/socialism/communism/Muslim/whatever, is to disregard not only history, but recent history:

Bush calls for intelligence czar CNN - Aug 2, 2004 (Ed: That headline is a hoot!)

Bush's Selection of War Czar Is Attempt at Cutting Red Tape FOXNews - May 16, 2007

BUSH'S DRUG CZAR VOWS TO SNUFF HIS CIGARETTES Deseret News - NewsBank - Jan 14, 1989

Wanted: Car Czar to Revive an Auto Industry FOXNews - Dec 10, 2008

Those are all from the Bush era, and there are more. Please note also, that three of those stories come from decidedly right-wing sources. So can this incredibly stupid faux outrage be stopped now, or must we pretend the last eight years never happened? Can we at least kill this issue unless Obama designates someone a Viceroy?

Tax Farmers, Mercenaries and Viceroys New York Times - Aug 21, 2006