Obama and the Great Lakes Czar

Another day, another new office.

Last week, Obama created the "cyber czar" position.

This week's addition to Obama's army of czars -- the Great Lakes czar.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A prominent regional conservationist was appointed the first-ever Great Lakes czar Wednesday, making good on President Barack Obama's campaign promise to elevate the health of the Great Lakes as a national issue.

Cameron Davis, president of the Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes, is the administration's pick to coordinate federal programs on the lakes, including efforts to clean up contaminated sediments, reduce existing pollution sources and stanch the onslaught of invasive species in recent decades.

The new position is part of a $5 billion, 10-year restoration plan Obama released during the heat of the fall campaign.

...Davis has a history with fellow Chicagoan Obama. The two met on a volunteer beach cleanup several years ago.

Davis and Obama met on a volunteer beach cleanup several years ago?

How many years ago? 20? 10?

What were they doing? Picking up garbage? I can't picture that.

"It's a great choice," said Jeff Skelding, director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, a consortium of groups lobbying Congress for federal dollars to restore the lakes. "He comes from a grass-roots background, and he knows his way in and out of government at virtually every level."

Sounds like Davis is a community organizer.

...Skelding said a similar position has been created recently for the mid-Atlantic's Chesapeake Bay.

There's a Chesapeake Bay czar?

I didn't know that.

How many "czars" has Obama appointed? How many new offices has he created?

This bears repeating:

Robert Byrd considers Obama's addiction to czars to be dangerous.

Robert Byrd, the longest serving senator in history, criticized President Obama's appointment of numerous White House advisors, also called "czars," saying the presence of the czars gives the president too much power.

These czars report directly to Mr. Obama and have the power to shape national policy on their subject area. So far, Mr. Obama has recruited czars on health reform, urban affairs policy, and energy and climate change. Unlike Cabinet secretaries, they do not have to be approved by Congress.

In a letter to Obama on Wednesday, Byrd, a Democrat, said that the czar system "can threaten the Constitutional system of checks and balances," Politico reported. Byrd added that oversight of federal agencies is the responsibility of officials approved by the Senate.

"As presidential assistants and advisers, these White House staffers are not accountable for their actions to the Congress, to cabinet officials, or to virtually anyone but the president," Byrd wrote. "They rarely testify before congressional committees, and often shield the information and decision-making process behind the assertion of executive privilege. In too many instances, White House staff have been allowed to inhibit openness and transparency, and reduce accountability."

Byrd has been a longtime critic of policies that concentrate power in the executive branch.

I don't see anything great about Obama's czar strategy.

Czars are one of Obama's favorite loopholes. He names czars to avoid accountability and circumvent Congress.

But even fellow Dem, Byrd, warns of Obama's czar force.

It bothers me that President Bush was mercilessly bashed for grabbing power and expanding the power of the presidency, yet Obama is openly threatening our Constitutional system of checks and balances with little opposition.

As Byrd warns, what Obama is doing is destructive. He's chipping away at the very foundations of our government, our freedom, our country.

I don't know why Americans are allowing him to get away with this unprecedented power grab.

Obama has taken the Imperial Presidency to staggering heights.

Obama has gone beyond acting like he's the king. He's more powerful than a dictator. I believe Obama thinks he is a god, not bound by any earthly constraints, like the Constitution of the United States.