by Mark Rhoads
The dean of the Senate and one of the great pork barrel kings of all time, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-West Va.), has written a letter to President Obama that is critical of Obama for making so many special policy czars at the White House outside regular cabinet channels. It is a new cabinet inside the cabinet say some in the White House press corps.
Now some Obama partisans will no doubt point out that in 1943 Sen. Byrd was a "Kleagle" whatever that is (recruiter?) when he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan or some version thereof. But for all his pork spending on West Virginia, Byrd is an authority on separation of powers, the Constitution, and Senate rules and he believes in Congressional oversight of agencies.
Even a busted clock is right twice a day and Sen. Byrd correctly understands that Obama is trying to concentrate all power and decision-making on the White House staff where it will be hard to get accountability rather than in the departments and agencies that must report to Congress on their policy and budgets. Here are the comments of Sen. Byrd reported in Politico. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19303.html
