Overthrowing Obama's Czars

Politico:

Republicans who have spent months criticizing the proliferation of “czars” in the Obama White House have finally landed a major punch.

Over the past few weeks, White House green jobs czar Van Jones has been accused of being a communist, an old lecture video showed him calling Republicans a—holes, and he’s been connected to a Sept. 11 conspiracy group.

With that type of paper trail, Jones would have trouble surviving a Senate confirmation.

But his czar status allowed him to skip this step: Many of the high-level White House policy advisers don’t require Senate confirmation for their posts. And while liberals have hailed Jones as a pioneer in the green jobs movement, critics have labeled him a radical — and he’s become a liability for a White House that doesn’t need another distraction.

On Friday, Republicans began calling for his resignation and asked for a public hearing into how Jones slipped past the White House vetting process. And White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Friday avoided addressing the Jones controversy directly, referring reporters back to a Jones statement apologizing for his affiliation with the Sept. 11 "truthers."

The Jones debacle shows how czars — dozens of powerful problem solvers tapped to tackle some of the thorniest problems facing the country — could continue to cause problems for the White House. By some counts, the Obama administration has about 30 czars — a term used as shorthand for long, wonky titles such as Jones’s “Council on Environmental Quality's special adviser for green jobs.”

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Republicans and a handful of Democrats have called on the White House to review and suspend its use of czars. Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) on Friday asked for a Senate hearing on the Jones appointment.

“In the wake of these recent revelations, the president should suspend any further appointments of so-called czars until Congress has an opportunity to examine the background and responsibilities of these individuals and to determine the constitutionality of such appointments,” said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), Chairman of the House Republican Conference, who called on Jones to resign.

The czar-attacks have begun to catch fire far beyond the Beltway. In town hall meetings across the country this August, questioners slammed the administration’s advisers, claiming that they allowed the White House to wield unchecked power.

It’s an argument that’s been fed by Republicans in Congress, who see an opening to attack the credibility of the popular administration. In an Arizona town hall meeting last week, Republican Sen. John McCain joked that Obama, “has more czars than the Romanovs” — a laugh line he frequently uses. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calls the czars, “administrative chaos.”

Conservatives argue that the czars are the administration’s way of pushing a big government agenda - without Congress getting in the way. And each whiff of controversy, they believe, helps them prove their point.

Conservative pundits are on a czar hunt, combing records for politically dangerous statements made by the policy advisers.

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Jones has made so many controversial statements, that it is hard to see how he has any political viability on his own, and his presence will drag Obama into more explanations than is desirable for a President who has better things to do than defend people more radical than most of voters. I think Jones will just be the first to go. The Diversity guy at the FCC also has problems with his suggestion that Venezuelan despot Chavez has the right idea about controlling the media. Like Jones he is another socialist looking to change America more than voters would desire.