Obama's 'czars:' Halls of fame

by Mike Dorning

Kenneth Feinberg, the latest Obama administration official the news media have anointed "czar," hardly has the kind of power that would impress Ivan the Terrible or Peter the Great.

Feinberg, widely described as the White House's "pay czar," will have real control over compensation of executives at exactly seven companies that have been large recipients of government bailout money. And he has discretion over only the top five executives and 20 most highly paid employees in those companies. At most, that's 175 people.

But czars are proliferating in Washington with a White House that has demonstrated a clear inclination to concentrate broad authority in its top officials by crossing traditional bureaucratic boundaries and a 24-hour cable news culture that has discovered that the appointment of a czar is more exciting than, say, an adviser on urban issues.

There's health reform czar, a drug czar, a border czar, a regulatory czar, an info-tech czar -- everything, it sometimes seems, but a Russian czar.

In fact, Republican Sen. John McCain has joked that President Barack Obama has "more czars than the Romanovs," the dynasty of czars that ruled Russia for three centuries.

Since czar isn't an official job title, the number is somewhat in the eye of the beholder. The magazine Foreign Policy's blog back in April counted 18, though the author included diplomatic "special envoys," which have been used by previous presidents and have not widely been called czars before. Either way, Feinberg didn't make the cut.

Reuters this month counted "as many as 21" czars but didn't provide a list.

It's too many czars, grumble some members of the Senate. They might fear that the real power will flow toward czars, most of whom are not subject to Senate confirmation. It's a matter of accountability, they say.

An argument, perhaps, for expanding the jurisdiction of the accountability czar, Earl Devaney, now charged with monitoring spending under the economic stimulus program.

See the hall of Obama czars below, here in the Swamp:

Executive pay (appointed Wednesday): Kenneth Feinberg

Regulatory czar: Cass Sunstein

Health-care reform: Nancy-Ann DeParle

Efficiency: Jeffrey Zients

Southwest border czar: Alan Bersin

Energy: Carol Browner

Urban affairs: Adolfo Carrion

Economics: Paul Volcker AND/OR??? Lawrence Summers

Government performance: Unfilled

Drug: Gil Kerlikowske

Car czar: Steve Rattner

Bank bailout: Herb Allison

Iran: Dennis Ross

Mideast: George Mitchell

Afghanistan/Pakistan: Richard Holbrooke

Cyber security: To be named.

Distressed auto communities: Ed Montgomery

Climate change: Todd Stern

A Check Up For The Health Care Bill

Host Liane Hansen speaks with NPR's Julie Rovner about the healthcare reform bill making its way through a Senate committee this week. They also look ahead to alternate bills that could have more bipartisan support.