# Just what is so scary or unconstitutional about the Obama Admin's "czars"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [September 3, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724 "2009-09-03T04:25:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/1 "2009-09-03T04:25:44Z")
I know Glenn Beck keeps saying these “czars” differ from ordinary executive-branch officials in that they are exempt from Congressional oversight . . . but I have never yet seen a credible cite for that. Yet it’s a RW meme propagating virally all over the blogosphere right now, it seems.
[The term “czar” has been applied to various kinds of U.S. officials, not all of them executive-branch, since the 1940s.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._executive_branch_%27czars%27)
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/2 "2009-09-03T04:41:30Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> I know Glenn Beck keeps saying these “czars” differ from ordinary executive-branch officials in that they are exempt from Congressional oversight . . . but I have never yet seen a credible cite for that. Yet it’s a RW meme propagating virally all over the blogosphere right now, it seems.
>
> [The term “czar” has been applied to various kinds of U.S. officials, not all of them executive-branch, since the 1940s.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._executive_branch_%27czars%27)
He’s a lying moron, but he rarely “states” anything- he just alludes to it in a semi-rhetorical “question”. That way, he can backtrack when he’s called on it. Thus, he’s also a coward, not willing to stand behind his own beliefs.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/3 "2009-09-03T13:45:38Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> He’s a lying moron, but he rarely “states” anything- he just alludes to it in a semi-rhetorical “question”. That way, he can backtrack when he’s called on it. Thus, he’s also a coward, not willing to stand behind his own beliefs.
Note to self:
1. Become a cowardly, lying moron.
2. ???
3. PROFIT! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/4 "2009-09-03T14:00:38Z")
Well, Czars are scary. They sent their opponents to Siberia, oppressed the people, persecuted the Jews, got in all these wars in the Balkans.
Do you really want this all happening here?
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/5 "2009-09-03T14:08:57Z")
You know who else had lots of Czars?
HITLER!
(oh, wait, never mind.)
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### Author:  [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/6 "2009-09-03T14:15:32Z")
You know, I could \*swear \*that previous administrations had czars.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/7 "2009-09-03T14:44:35Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#):
>
> Well, Czars are scary.
Particularly that **Czarcasm** guy. 😉
> [@](#):
>
> Do you really want this all happening here?
Seriously, the “czar” nickname is probably not helping, given what these people think about Obama to begin with.
[An earlier thread on this subject that may have inspired the current one.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=520991)
[Here’s one column about the constitutional issue](http://cnsnews.com/news/article/53280), which you can tell is going to be good because the author has to admit in sentence #2 that he’s “not a constitutional scholar.” But he’s read the Constitution, and he did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. Anyway he argues that the czars most be there for evil purposes because the posts are redundant, since he already has his cabinet, and that Congress needs to approve them, and hasn’t.
The really hilarious part of all this is that, according to the Wikipedia entry **BrainGlutton** links to, Obama has _three fewer_ czars than Bush.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/8 "2009-09-03T14:56:18Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#):
>
> You know who else had lots of Czars?
>
> HITLER!
Yes. Obama should have gone with ‘Emirs’ instead of czars.
That’d have given the loons much less to wail about.
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### Author:  [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/9 "2009-09-03T14:58:44Z")
> [@Squink](#):
>
> Yes. Obama should have gone with ‘Emirs’ instead of czars.
> That’d have given the loons much less to wail about.
Hah! You know who else had Emirs?
Uh… I got nuthin’.
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### Author:  [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/10 "2009-09-03T15:06:11Z")
> [@Squink](#):
>
> Yes. Obama should have gone with ‘Emirs’ instead of czars.
> That’d have given the loons much less to wail about.
I’d have preferred ‘Swami’. Or perhaps ‘Guru’, but only if the emphasis is on the second syllable.
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### Author:  [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/11 "2009-09-03T15:16:53Z")
> [@Squink](#):
>
> Yes. Obama should have gone with ‘Emirs’ instead of czars.
Nah, ‘Ayatollah’ would have worked better, definitely.
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### Author:  [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/12 "2009-09-03T15:20:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The really hilarious part of all this is that, according to the Wikipedia entry **BrainGlutton** links to, Obama has _three fewer_ czars than Bush.
And that one of Bush’s czars was the Reading Czar, appointed primarily to teach kids how to read books upside down. 😃
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/13 "2009-09-03T15:22:23Z")
> [@Icarus](#):
>
> Nah, ‘Ayatollah’ would have worked better, definitely.
He should immediately appoint an “Ayatollah of Rock and Rollah”.
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### Author:  [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/14 "2009-09-03T15:24:37Z")
> [@Squink](#):
>
> Yes. Obama should have gone with ‘Emirs’ instead of czars.
> That’d have given the loons much less to wail about.
Are you kidding? Emir = Arabic = Muslim = Wailing and Lying Through Teeth
He should have gone with pomo. It’s Finnish, it just means boss.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/15 "2009-09-03T15:47:46Z")
> [@hotflungwok](#):
>
> He should have gone with pomo.
Too easily misread as “porno.”
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/16 "2009-09-03T15:49:36Z")
I say he should have appointed “Commissars.”
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/17 "2009-09-03T15:55:23Z")
Sultans.
Who could be upset about the “Sultan of Domestic Car Sales” or whatever?
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/18 "2009-09-03T16:22:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> The really hilarious part of all this is that, according to the Wikipedia entry **BrainGlutton** links to, Obama has _three fewer_ czars than Bush.
Note that the method of identifying a czar on that list is “a person refered to at least once by the media as a czar”. Which is why it’s silly to complain about the number of “czars” a President has, the term doesn’t have any sort of official meaning, its just media short-hand for “person in the Executive Branch in charge of X”. It’s use doesn’t really tell us much about
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/19 "2009-09-03T16:26:56Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#):
>
> I say he should have appointed “Commissars.”
I had someone explain to me, with a straight face, during the Cold War, that the word literally was derived from “Commie (=Communist) Czar.”
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-scary-or-unconstitutional-about-the-obama-admins-czars/508724/20 "2009-09-03T16:52:13Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> Too easily misread as “porno.”
Or “postmodern.”
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