There's No Time for the Man Called Czar
The casting call for a Bush administration "war czar," incredibly, goes on. Over at the impenetrable American Prospect site Steve Benen points out that the Bushies seem to need a czar for everything. I'll save you the trip to the main article—which involves scaling a 33-foot electrified fence and answering the riddle of the Sphinx—and steal his nut graf.
- In 2001, with escalating concerns about possible attacks on our information technology infrastructure, Bush named a "cybersecurity czar."
- In 2003, the president's desire to help his corporate benefactors led to the creation of a "regulatory czar" at the Office of Management and Budget. Around the same time, Bush named his first "AIDS Czar." (He didn't choose wisely—Bush tapped Randall Tobias, the administration's former top advocate of global abstinence-only policies, who was recently forced to resign after procuring "massages" from a controversial Washington escort service.)
- In 2004, faced with growing discontent over the nation's struggling manufacturing industries, Bush appointed a "manufacturing czar." (He chose the chief executive of a Nebraska company that had laid off manufacturing employees and built factories in China.)
- 2005 was a banner year for czars. In February, Bush responded to revelations about failed national security intelligence by creating an "intelligence czar." Shortly thereafter, we had a "bird-flu czar." A few months after that, following the tragically botched handling of the response to Hurricane Katrina, there was a "Katrina czar."
And it all started with Jerome Jaffe, the methadone-loving nogoodnik.