Presidential Perks Gone Royal Read online

  In our rough recession, isn’t it high time we question whether we can afford—or truly want—a presidency gone royal? There is much we can do to turn this situation around for the good of our democracy, and I offer suggestions for doing just that in my final chapter, by which time I am betting that you will be as incensed as I am.

  Still with me? Good. Then, buckle up, turn the pages, and get ready for a shock-filled ride.

  “Many of these ‘czars’ are unconfirmed by the Senate and are largely unaccountable to Congress. Further, their activities are often outside the reach of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), creating a veil of secrecy about their precise role in the administration.”

  —David Freddoso in Washington Examiner, October 10, 2011

  Chapter Two

  Overkill: 43 Czars and

  469 Assistant Presidents

  In March 31, 2008, then Senator Barack Obama said, “The biggest problem that we’re facing right now has to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that’s what I intend to reverse when I’m President of the United States.”

  What happened with this promise when he took office? President Obama has made a virtual end-run around the legislative branch. Not only are his 43 “czars” unaccountable to the Congress, but also, if subpoenaed by Congress, the President’s czars can refuse to appear by claiming executive privilege, often working outside coverage of the Freedom of information Act.

  Only 8 czars in Bill Clinton’s eight years. 28 czars at the end of George W. Bush’ eight years. 43 czars by the end of Barack Obama’s FIRST YEAR! Russia’s Romanov Dynasty only produced 18 czars over 300 years!

  It is most troubling that many of the czars are in competition with the assigned responsibilities of Congressional committees and with other departments of government. In most cases, they duplicate the assigned responsibilities of other officials of high rank. Some of the czars have even expanded their reach to justify their existence.

  And there are some czars who might have been denied their posts had their names and backgrounds been submitted for Congressional approval. For example, John Holdren, one of the czars, has been charged as being a population-control zealot who believes the Constitution justifies compulsory abortions on a massive worldwide scale. Van Jones, originally named environmental Czar, is believed by some to be an avowed communist and anarchist.

  Despite a “deal” President Obama made with Republican members of Congress when he agreed to the deficit reduction, he continues to command the services of his forty-three “czars.” And, the number of the presidential czars continues to increase. The president is said to be considering the addition of a Zoning Czar, a Student Loan Czar, a Voter List Czar, a Radio-internet Fairness Czar, a Mortgage Czar, a Land-use Czar and an income Redistribution Czar.

  This is serious business, readers, and bears repetition. Cabinet officers are picked by the president, but they must be confirmed by the Senate; their departments are funded by Congress, and they can be called before Congress to testify. The czars have been appointed by Obama at his sole discretion, are answerable only to him and, if subpoenaed by Congress, they can claim executive privilege.

  © Tribune Media Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

  (Reprinted with permission.)

  This is important: the czars constitute a shadow government serving at the total pleasure of the president, answerable only to him. A government over which the people and their representatives have no control? In our treasured democracy? Sounds dangerously close to the government of a king of an eastern country or Venezuela’s Chavez.

  Following is the long list of czars named by President Obama:

  Afghanistan/Pakistan Czar

  Auto Recovery Czar

  AIDS Czar

  Bailout Czar

  Border Czar

  Car Czapr

  Cyber Security Czar

  Copyright Czar

  Climate Czar

  Central Region Czar

  Disinformation Czar

  Domestic Violence Women Czar

  Drug Czar

  Education Czar

  Economy Czar

  Energy and Environment Czar

  Export Czar

  Government Performance Czar

  Faith-based Czar Health Czar

  Health Insurance Czar

  Homeland Security Czar

  Great Lakes Czar

  Green Jobs Czar

  Guantanamo Closure Czar

  Information Czar

  Intelligence Czar

  Labor Czar

  Middle east Peace Czar

  Pay Czar

  Regulatory Czar

  Safe Schools Czar

  Science Czar

  Stimulus Accountability Czar

  Sudan Czar

  TARP Czar

  Technology Czar

  Terrorism Czar

  Tobacco Czar

  Urban Czar

  War Czar

  Water Czar

  Weapons Czar

  Weapons of Mass Destruction Czar

  Our government has thrived all these years without czars reporting exclusively to the president. Why now? Why so many? No wonder President Obama seems to have had a disconnect with the Congress. As we said before, he is running a shadow government of his own, one answerable only to him.

  It is not as if the president is without other personal assistance. In addition to his czars, President Obama has a record-breaking 469 men and women on the White House staff with titles and salaries that qualify them for the term, “Assistant Presidents.” That number of 469 does not include secretaries or junior assistants; these are titled professionals. Twenty-seven of the “Assistant Presidents,” are paid over $170,000 a year; and 226 are paid over $100,000 a year. Since that is more than members of Congress were receiving until 2009, and since members of Congress have no say over President Obama’s assistant presidents or czars, Congress did what Congress knows how to do best and increased its own pay to $174,000. Whammo! The taxpayers got hit, again.

  None of the above is presented as denial of the enormity of presidential responsibility. It is indeed enormous. A dramatic example is the “football,” the metal case that travels with the president at all times and is the ultimate trigger for nuclear warfare. An Army Lt. Colonel, a Navy Commander or a Marine Major, with the “football” handcuffed to his or her wrist, is never more than a few feet from the president.

  Inside the “football” briefcase, in addition to what is known as the “Gold Codes,” is a secure satellite radio along with the President’s “Decision Book,” a 75-page document detailing his nuclear strike options. Each morning the National Security Agency issues a new set of codes, which presidents traditionally store in their pockets—although one president once left the day’s nuclear code in the pocket of a suit that went to the cleaners!

  This ever-present 45-pound briefcase, containing the secret codes that allow a president to respond to a military threat with nuclear weapons, is a constant reminder that our president is Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, both at home and around the world. In addition to that heady responsibility, he shapes the national priority, sets the national mood, and speaks for us in relationships with other nations. No question about it, his is a very responsible job.

  The general public believes that the president is continuously exhausted and ever ready for the next crisis, with his every second booked to the max and little or no personal time. Nothing could be further from the truth. The late historian Milton Plesur was quoted in a 1998 book, The Mortal Presidency: Illness and Anguish in the White House by Robert e. Gilbert: “No responsible union would ever approve the President’s hours for a ‘hard hat.’ ” With all due respect, when he implies a president’s work hours are onerous, I would argue that Plesur bought into and was perpetuating a myth that has been kept alive by writers who never worked in the White House. Any staff member who has ever worked for a pres
ident will agree that a subtle part of his or her job was to position the boss as the most overworked man in America—thus making the presidency appear to be as overwhelmingly consuming as the public believes it to be.

  But consider this: if the presidency were so totally consuming, how could presidents always find the time, over many weeks, even months, to devote to campaigning for re-election? More specifically, how could President Obama find time for so many days of vacation (plus weekends) and afternoons for golf, as he did last year?

  Physically, the hardest thing about the presidency is running for the job. Thanks to the saturation coverage the media gives to campaigns, the side of the presidency that the public most fully sees is the effort it takes to be elected to the post. The public assumes elected presidents continue to be as totally stressed as they were as candidates, only now, on an even higher level while involved in loftier projects.

  In reality, the president is supported by total backup in every conceivable arena. Every member of the cabinet reports exclusively to the president, exists to do his bidding, is responsible for informing him on important departmental issues and, like everyone else who works closely with him, is obliged to make the president look good. These individuals must also stand ready to take the blame away from the president if anything goes amiss.

  The big man has hundreds of high-priced, highly-skilled assistants committed to executing tireless performances in his name. In fact, our current Commander-in-Chief has a staggering total of more than five hundred professionals at his beck and call, all of whom work long hours and seven-day weeks to perform functions attributed to the president, to keep him on top of his job (or make him appear to be so) and, in too many cases, to help him get re-elected.

  Looking Good on TV…

  Thanks to his television appearances, which are run and rerun with great frequency, today’s citizens see the president’s job as one of continuous speechmaking. Since public speaking is a common fear among adults, people feel for a president who must be on the podium often, with the entire world watching.

  While the President does make a great many public speeches, keep in mind that he does have a full-time speechwriting staff of several of the nation’s best writers. The president also is supported in his public addresses by half a dozen technicians trained at servicing and operating his teleprompter. Today a presidential speech is less a speech and more a presidential reading of words drafted for him. Press conference teleprompters allow staffers to flash the president answers or statistics to make his performances appear fact-filled and flawless.

  Somehow, thanks to all these helping heads and minds, there is always time for the president to receive the Thanksgiving turkey, be pictured with a Boy Scout troop or a winning ball team, to opine on a national holiday or news event, to make a political appearance, or even make surprise guest appearances on such TV talk shows as Oprah and Late Night with David Letterman. He also manages the time to campaign for himself or an ally, or take a vacation to Martha’s Vineyard or even to Camp David “on unofficial business.”

  As Appointments Secretary for Dwight David Eisenhower, I was keeper of the presidential calendar and watcher of the clock. What I observed often reminded me that presidents are human. There are days when everything from family matters to global affairs do not go smoothly. Presidents are subject to headaches, upset stomachs and days of the blahs just like the rest of us. When Eisenhower, one of the most placid of humans, was in a rare dark mood, his valet, Mooney, would lay out a brown suit for him. It was a signal to those in the know to back off a bit and give him some space.

  The media is allowed access to the presidential office and to the man himself. Presidents are so often in the news that we assume they are always terribly busy, and members of the press strengthen this belief by referring to the presidency as “life in a fishbowl.” Again, far from the truth. For many days, occasionally several consecutive ones, presidents are totally out of the public eye, with no public reporting of their actions or their whereabouts. Proof that presidents are quite often out of the public’s sight is the fact that in the past significant physical disabilities were successfully hidden from the general public. Polio victim Franklin Roosevelt was in office for nearly thirteen years and the public never saw him in a wheelchair or on his crutches!

  President Kennedy on the “Cherry Picker” Time Inc.

  (Reprinted with permission from Lynn Pelham/Getty Images)

  I was Appointments Secretary to Eisenhower the day the public was informed that he was in bed with a slight cold. I knew better. I had been standing before him at his desk in the oval office when he experienced what was later described as “an occlusion of a small branch of the middle cerebral artery.” In layman’s terms, Ike had had a stroke.

  In addition to Addison’s Disease, President Kennedy suffered from back problems so severe that his aides often placed a hospital bed in the White House movie theater so that he could enjoy watching films lying down. During Jack Kennedy’s time as president, according to Dr. Jeffrey Kelman, the president was on ten medications a day, including codeine, Demerol™, methadone and daily injections of cortisone.

  When out of camera view, President Kennedy frequently used crutches and walked downstairs sideways. Going up stairs was a bigger problem, and often when he had to board Air Force One he was lifted to the entrance by a cherry picker.

  Incidentally, none of the above is meant to minimize the suffering of a man who bravely endured great pain most of his adult life. Rather, as with the other examples, it demonstrates how much of a president’s life and private time is completely unknown to the voters.

  President Eisenhower loved golf. More than once when I served as Ike’s Appointments Secretary, Sherman Adams, the President’s Chief of Staff, came into the office to speak with him only to find him absent, whereupon he would exclaim, “Good God, is he playing golf, again!” President Obama played 29 rounds of golf in his first year in office. So much for being tied to the desk.

  Since Eisenhower loved golf, his schedule was filled with as many golf games as possible. Routinely, Ike came into the oval office whenever he had finished his breakfast and read the morning papers. He worked until about 11:45 a.m. and then went over to the mansion (the private quarters of the White House) for lunch. After lunch he returned to the office and continued meetings, or read his mail, until around 4 p.m. He then took off for a golf game or returned to the mansion for an evening with Mrs. Eisenhower or a game of bridge with pals from his days as Supreme Allied Commander.

  After he left office, amateur artist Eisenhower admitted he had more time to paint when he was president, “because presidents are so fully supported and organized.” As with everyone who works for a president, my job was to accommodate presidential demands and wishes. The important part of my job was to schedule necessary meetings with the President. The largest part of my time was spent on the telephone or in written correspondence, usually declining requests for presidential appointments from government officials, foreign diplomats, and private citizens whose requests could be handled by someone else.

  It is easy to reminisce about a quieter and simpler time and categorize the Eisenhower Presidency as less stressful than today. However, this too is somewhat of a myth. Historians and us oldsters remember that during that time we had many significant challenges and that bomb shelters were being built across the land. The threat of a Russian military attack on the United States was so significant that the president and top White House officials had duplicate highly secret offices they could go to. They had been constructed in the bowels of a West Virginia mountainside. Without forewarning, the president, and those of us in select positions, would board helicopters on the South Lawn and carry out an evacuation drill. The wars were also not always “cold.” During his two terms, President Eisenhower ordered U.S. troops to invade Lebanon. Ike also had many domestic challenges. He ordered the troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce desegregation. He faced the competition with Russia in a new S
pace Age when the Soviets put Sputnik in orbit. Ike also created the national highway system and balanced the federal budget. These were not dulcet times.

  Even so, when the editors of U.S. News and World Report asked us if they could do a photo essay entitled, “A Day in the Life of the President,” it was a real effort to fatten up the presidential schedule to make it appear as if his workdays were indeed those of the so-called “busiest man in the world.” And even though those were not simpler days, Eisenhower was supported by only a couple dozen top staff, compared with the 43 czars and 469 White House professional assistants on call to President Obama today.

  Unlike his nine-to-five fellow citizens, a United States President does not have fixed office hours nor even set workdays. This is not to suggest presidents do not have enough work to keep them busy, but if they knew the realities, most professionals would trade schedules with the president in a heartbeat.

  Look at George W. Bush’s eight years in office. Of those 2,920 days as president, according to one record, he spent 487 days at Camp David and another 490 at his ranch in Crawford, Texas—almost a third of his time in office.

  In fairness, and this book is not intentionally unfair to, or critical of, any of our presidents, George Bush liked to entertain foreign guests at his Texas ranch or at Camp David. Still, his out-of-office time would have been the envy of most of his fellow taxpayers. And his example underscores our point that, while the presidency of the United States is arguably the most significant leadership role in the world, its physical demands are less than the jobs held by most of a president’s countrymen.

  During President Obama’s initial 365 days in office he made 160 flights on Air Force One, attended 28 political fundraisers, and seven campaign rallies outside of Washington. There were also 26 admitted vacation days, plus an additional 27 days at Camp David, while squeezing in 29 rounds of golf. How is all this possible? It would be an understatement to say that 21st Century presidents have lots of time away from the desk and plenty of help.