“This czar system provides an excellent network for siphoning off huge amounts of money at a time when the government is shoveling out money — with minimal accountability — at a rate not seen since the New Deal and WWII”

I maintain that, even if there is not a corruption scandal soon, that there is going to be a major problem for the Democrats because of this money binge. The Democrats have for quite awhile been involved in the buying of their power, their votes, both at the ballot box and in Congress using mainly the funds of the Government.

Republicans got in on the action for awhile but their voters ultimately dumped them over the “earmarks” etc. They don’t have the constituency that can make the buying of power a long term proposition.

With the spending that Obama has unleashed, all the people that get paid are seeing a huge increase in what they receive. Like the employee who sees a huge increase in his pay for doing basically the same job as before, these people will expect to continue to receive not just the increased pay but new raises of equivalent amounts in the future.

Hyperinflation is hitting the graft and corruption set. The greed therein may upset the entire system. Or bring us all down together. Compounding increases like interest go hyperbolic eventually.

That’s a fair test, and one that a lot of Americans are open to.

Who’s paying for the czars?

Are the czars a vanity gig, a way to reward your friends and keep them very close?

Van is a handsome man. The halo effect protected him, I suspect, to a large extent. The czars share the halo, hailing from distinguished heights in academia and ngo-land. Such illuminati are above mere questionnaires and senate confirmation. At one time in Europe there existed the “republic of letters,” an informal society of scholars who shared learning and a scholarly language (Latin). The new illuminati share a belief in a new kind of world, something like the kind of world that really smart people like them and Mr. President could imagine.

Now apply that to a whole country… yikes!

I replied that the man in the street Democrat and Republican each think they love America but that is not necessarily true of the leadership, both elected and behind the scenes.

I further asked him to consider a different question. “Whenever you see something or hear about something from any administration, do you ask yourself how you would feel about the same thing if it were enacted by an administration from the other party?” In other words, if Nixon or Reagan or Bush had appointed someone with the right-wing version of Van Jones, would you regard it as serious or innocuous? If Nixon or George W. Bush had a Treasury Secretary who hadn’t paid his taxes, or if Nixon gave a televised speech to the nation’s school children, would you think of it the same way as you do for Obama? And so forth.

And more to the point of this post, if Nixon had 33 Czars or George W. Bush had them, would you feel as comfortable about it as you do now with Obama?

I think this is a fair test that all sides should employ as they consider the political horizon.

…special advisers to the president, or czars, are not required to fill out the questionnaire that runs 7 pages and contains 63 questions.

So this admin sidesteps it’s own requirements for transparency? That is some strange definition of “Most Transparent Administration Evah!”

Cannot this ‘Shadow Government’ be deconstructed through a Constitutional argument? I am not a lawyer but has not someone considered this avenue?

LOTM @ 14:

If the first Black President is subject to control because his own words can be used against him then he is morally not a free agent but a slave.

Ouch! That is going to leave a mark! I like it! (Channeling Chevy Chase in “Modern Problems”.) Then who is the Master? Follow the money.

JMH @ 19:

But who is the Czar Czar, Axelrod or Emannuel?

I vote for Rahmbo E.

Roderick Reilly @ 21:

I had made the point repeatedly in 2008 that the Obama crowd are not merely redistributionists, but also retributionists.

You and me both. I took 0bama for what he said he was. Radical. But it is scant comfort these days.

Glenn Beck, Malkin @ her sites, NRO and others must keep hammering on the current admin until they are exposed for the shite that we all know they are.

To compare to Obama you would have to add to the captain’s qualifications that he was the one that prevented the earlier capitan from installing those new-fangled radar-directed searchlight systems so to make more room for indigent passengers.

Barack Obama, Van Jones, Eliot Spitzer, etc., the list goes on.