[1] One of the earliest known metaphorical usages of the term in the U.S. was in reference to Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was named commissioner of baseball, with broad powers to clean up the sport after it had been dirtied by the Black Sox scandal of 1919.
[7] Since then, a number of ad hoc temporary as well as permanent United States Executive Branch positions have been established that have been referred to in this manner.
[14] Nixon told his cabinet that Simon would have "absolute authority" in his designated areas, and compared the intended result to Albert Speer's role as the person in unquestioned charge of armaments for the Third Reich.
[15] However, at the height of the Arab oil embargo, Simon gave the position a good name by successfully putting into place a mandatory fuel allocation program and calming public fears about shortages without resorting to explicit gasoline rationing.
[19] Advantages cited for the creation of czar type posts include the ability to go outside of formal channels and find creative solutions for ad hoc problems, and an ability to involve a lot of government players in big issue decision-making, ultimately enabling a huge bureaucracy to begin moving in a new direction.
[10] Another is that Americans of the era generally adopted exotic Asian words to denote those with great, and perhaps unchecked, power, with "mogul" and "tycoon" being instances in business contexts.
[citation needed] The increase in czar positions over time may be because as the size and role of the executive branch governments has grown, so too has the difficulty of coordinating policy across multiple jurisdictions.
So it is no coincidence that as the complexity of government machinery has grown, presidents have responded by increasing the number of assistants or "czars" to help with the management and coordination of the executive branch.
"[23] Critics who charge that czars are unconstitutional often ground their complaints in Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which states the president may nominate "other public Ministers ... by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate.
[29][30] By September 2009, Representative Jack Kingston found 100 cosponsors for a proposed Czar Accountability and Reform Act of 2009, which sought to prohibit taxpayer-paid salaries to "any task force, council, or similar office which is established by or at the direction of the President and headed by an individual who has been inappropriately appointed to such position (on other than an interim basis), without the advice and consent of the Senate.
[1] A White House spokesperson said, "The term 'czar' is largely a media creation to make jobs that have existed under multiple administrations sound more exciting.
[34] However, the position itself may not have been that important; Brookings Institution fellow Stephen Hess described Jones as a third-tier adviser reporting to a powerless committee.
Appointing individuals to serve as the focal point on some issues of presidential interest is a tested and [sometimes] very effective way of dealing with such challenges.
"[21] Resistance to the term has itself a long history; the Interstate Commerce Commissioner during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, Joseph B. Eastman, declared he was not a "Federal railroad czar" upon being appointed transportation coordinator.
[1][26] As head of the Office of Homeland Security during the George W. Bush administration, Tom Ridge found that these reasons significantly limited his ability to influence policy.
[26] As "drug czar", William Bennett also noticed that the lack of direct authority, inability to dispense grants, and relative small staff was a "potentially debilitating institutional weakness" that he needed to overcome.
[10] If a czar actually is strong and effective, then opposition to him or her rises from the governmental bodies which are losing power, and civil libertarians will often publicly object as well.
[40] The nature of the 2009 appointment, and the usage of the term "tsar" did receive criticism however, with columnist Tracy Corrigan in The Daily Telegraph suggesting it set as a precedent for the English model Jordan to be made the "women’s issues tsarina",[41] with Conservative life peer Lord Hunt suggesting he could already be a "fallen tsar".