Since when did the United States start appointing czars? Is anyone else unsettled by these new government positions?
A czar is defined as “a male monarch or emperor (especially of Russia prior to 1917); a person having great power.” The Wikipedia entry for “Tsar” ends with:
“Like many lofty titles, e.g. Mogul, Tsar or Czar has been used as a metaphor for positions of high authority, in English since 1866 (referring to U.S. President Andrew Johnson), with a connotation of dictatorial powers and style.”
In the past two days we’ve seen a newly appointed “War Czar” and an FDA “Food Safety Czar.” Both fresh creations of the Bush Administration.
After some very brief Googling I see that we’ve had a Drug Czar since Nixon. And President Clinton named Richard Clarke as his anti-terrorism czar.
These two new ones aside, are there others I don’t know about? Am I making too much of the ‘czar’ connotation?
Even so, surely there is better vocabulary that could be used. Where’s that marketing guy when you need him, the one who turned ‘Global Warming’ into ‘Climate Change’ and other scary things into not-as-scary sounding things. The Patriot Act, for example. Now that sounds like something this country needs!
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