Who Thinks It’s a Good Idea to Have a Czar?

I’m not sure where the government first got the idea of saying a high level official is the czar of whatever that department is, but the Obama Administration has more czars now than the Romanovs.

And if you recall, that form of government in Russia didn’t have a very good ending.

The White House is expected to name a cyber czar today who will be in charge of defending government computers from hacker attacks. This individual will also be in charge of protecting systems ranging from those that control the stock exchanges to our air traffic control system.

It’s probably too late, but I hear Jack Bauer is available.

I just did a Google News search on the term czar and got back stories from the following czars currently working for the administration:

Drug war czar
Car czar
Security czar
Regulatory czar
Finance czar
Green job czar
Health care czar

And this isn’t just media terminology for these positions. Even The White House website features this endorsement of one of their new czars: “"The Police Foundation applauds the appointment of Gil Kerlikowske as the nation’s next Drug Czar.“

Here’s the definition of czar from dictionary.com:

1. an emperor or king.
2. (often initial capital letter) the former emperor of Russia.
3. an autocratic ruler or leader.
4. any person exercising great authority or power in a particular field: a czar of industry. 

And the czars don’t have a great history. Here are some tidbits from Encyclopedia Britannica online: “The Romanovs established no regular pattern of succession until 1797. During the first century of their rule they generally followed the custom (held over from the late Rurik rulers) of passing the throne to the tsar’s eldest son or, if he had no son, to his closest senior male relative…Paul I changed the succession law, establishing a definite order of succession for members of the Romanov family. He was murdered by conspirators supporting his son Alexander I..On March 2 (March 15, New Style), 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favour of his brother Michael, who refused it the following day. Nicholas and all his immediate family were executed in July 1918 at Yekaterinburg.“

Ouch, I buried the lead on how the era of the czars came to an end.

However, the czars did make for some Hollywood movies. The animated Anastasia made nearly $140 million when it was released in 1997. Nicholas and Alexandra won two Academy Awards in 1972.

So let’s drop the term of czar - which I think was first used by the Reagan Administration - and go with my suggestion that had a much greater heritage.

Of course its the Grand Pooh-bah.