Georgia lawmakers lead 'czar' charge

ATLANTA --- Two Republican congressmen from Georgia have been as vocal in criticizing the Obama administration's policy "czars" as anyone, and the traction they have gained may indicate the rise of the GOP.

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In the wake of last fall's elections, many national commentators were saying the Republican Party was adrift, with no leadership and no issues. Republicans sang the chorus.

Georgia Reps. Tom Price, Phil Gingrey and Paul Broun, all Republicans and all physicians, have contributed to the drumbeat of opposition to the health care proposals.

But the issue of how many aides Obama has with the nickname czar would normally be limited to inside the Washington Beltway highway. After all, most people care more about the effects of policies than the political appointees who oversee them.

Reps. Jack Kingston and Dr. Broun have been among those making the issue visible, including a press conference broadcast live on Fox News.

Talk shows on radio and cable television have made the issue a staple of conservatives' conversations. It illustrates that Republicans have regained some ability to influence the public agenda, though they'll never be able to completely set it as long as they're in the minority.

Indeed, it has put the administration on the defensive.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs got drawn into a discussion about it this week. Communications Director Anita wrote a lengthy blog about it on the official, White House Web site.

"Hiring smart and qualified people to coordinate between agencies and with the White House is nothing new," White House spokeswoman Gannet Tseggai said Friday. "While some may now be applying new labels or engaging in revisionist history, the reality is that every president dating back to Nixon had similar positions in their administrations."

After all, there were 47 occasions over the last eight years when various media outlets described a senior Bush aide as a czar, including five AIDS czars, four budget czars, three faith czars, and, most recently, Bush's "bailout czar" last fall.

Mr. Kingston and others became alarmed, though, when so many Obama aides were getting the nickname so early in the administration.

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., complained in February that Mr. Obama seemed to be appointing a lot of key policy aides whose nominations weren't being submitted to the Senate.

Then in July, Mr. Kingston said it hit him as he attended a meeting of the House Appropriations Committee that he'd heard testimony from all the cabinet secretaries but none of the so-called czars. When none of the chairmen of the 13 subcommittees said they had either, he concluded some oversight was needed.

He said, for example, the man dubbed the science czar, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren, believes trees have a right to sue people.

"That's pretty bizarre. I'd like to know more about that," Mr. Kingston said.

In July, the Savannah Republican tried unsuccessfully to amend an appropriations bill with a requirement that would have prohibited government funds for salaries or expenses of appointees who lacked Senate confirmation.

When that failed, he introduced a standalone bill to do the same thing. He even found a name that spells CZAR, the Czar Accountability and Reform Act of 2009, H.R. 3226.

"When I introduced my bill in July, there weren't a lot of people who were that attuned to that, and now we have 109 cosponsors," he said Friday.

Dr. Broun was an original cosponsor, as was Rep. John Linder, R-Ga., and 15 others. Later, Gingrey and Lynn Westmoreland became the only other Georgia congressmen who have signed on so far, all Republicans.

Dr. Broun worries about erosion of the legislative branch's ability to counterbalance the executive, according to his spokeswoman Jessica Morris.

"He is simply sounding the alarm that America is on a slippery slope of putting government in control of our lives at the expense of our constitutionally protected freedoms," she said.

Mr. Kingston admits his legislation won't pass in today's environment, saying the majority Democrats won't let it. Partisan lockstep support of the president isn't new, he notes.

"I think the Bush administration was rubber stamped way too many times," he said, adding that he was always shushed when he rebelled in private GOP caucus meetings then. "The Bush administration was ruthless when it came time to twist arms."

Pass or not, the legislation represents one more leak in the dike for the Obama administration to keep a finger in, thanks in part to some Georgia politicians.

(Walter Jones is the Atlanta bureau chief for Morris News and has covered Georgia politics since 1998. He can be reached at walter.jones@morris.com or (404) 589-8424.)