Boy, the whole Obama Czars thing is getting a bit nuts…on the conservative side! We are hearing all sorts of strange claims.

Fox Military Analyst Ralph Peters says that President Obama “needs to knock it off with the czars and obey the Constitution.”

Peters may be a military analyst, but Constitutional scholar he isn’t. Readers here know our position is that these czars have way too much power and many are not answerable to anyone except the President himself. But some points:

1. The czar concept is not prohibited by the Constitution. Yes, there is no doubt that the President is taking wild advantage of a loophole, but czars and czar-like positions go back to Andrew Jackson’ Kitchen Cabinet.

2. Most 20th Century Presidents have used czars.

3. Many of Obama’s czars are actually media inventions, and the President does not normally use the word czar to describe them. This Czar (of Muscovy) has seen Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, referred to by the media as the Education Czar. That he is not: he is the Secretary of Education. Dennis Blair, media-dubbed the Intelligence Czar, is actually the Director of National Intelligence—a George Bush-created official position that went through Senate approval. Herb Allison, the Bank Bailout Czar, is actually the United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability, and was also approved by the Senate. These Senate confirmation are a check.

4. So if you eliminate those who are simply called czars by the media, and focus on those who are basically shoulder-tapped by the President and accountable to no one else—which may be subject to Supreme Court interpretation as a check and balance loophole but is not anti-Constitutional per se—then Obama has only sixteen of these Czar-like entities. Scary ones…crazy ones…to be sure, but not nearly as many as the media is inventing.

5. Subtracting those, and otherwise using the same criteria, George W. Bush may have had as many as 27 of these czars.

Conclusion: the prodigious number of czars is not the problem, nor is the position an immediate violation of the law. What should scare the bejeesus out of us is who these people are. You can read more about this, here. Basically, the reason they are being czared in is because they would not survive a confirmation hearing.

Fox’s Peters adds that Green Jobs Czar Van Jones is a complete lunatic who needs to be replaced.

Why? Think this through. Instead of replacing him with someone creatively dangerous who lurks Palpatine-like over the President’s shadow, why not let the communist conspiracy nut stay where he is? He is useless in his current position, and therefore safer. No one takes him seriously at this point, and anything he does will be a political boat anchor around a supporter’s neck.

We need instead to replace genuinely dangerous folks like Allison, Bloom, Browner,Feinberg, Fried, Lloyd, Stern, Taylor, Volker and Warren—people who could seriously train wreck this country, its economy, and its ability to function. Otherwise, leave all the goofy nutjobs and criminals where they are. They are useful idiots who will help us in 2012, if not 2010.

Update: Who listens? Van Jones has just resigned—although as the victim of a smear campaign, he wants us assholes to know that his crackpot beliefs about September 11th are, naturally, our fault. Well, then, mea culpa, you commie dirtbag. As your last act as “Green Czar,” get the lights on your way out.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.