Hannity: I Say ‘Czars’ Because It’s The Term The Obama Administration Uses
Hannity: I Say ‘Czars’ Because It’s The Term The Obama Administration Uses
Last night, Fox News host Sean Hannity made good on his promise to obsessively focus on taking down high-ranking Obama administration officials. He spent almost his entire show talking about President Obama’s so-called “czars,” even featuring a segment called “Land of the Czars.”
At one point, Hannity stopped to address why he and other conservatives call them czars: “mostly because the White House itself does.” To prove his point, he played a montage of four clips by Obama and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs using the term “czars.” Watch it:
This was an incredibly weak montage. A look at the full context of these clips:
– On July 13, Obama did use the term “Drug Czar” when referring to Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
– Hannity’s March 11 clip of Gibbs saying, “I think I’ve been asked in this room any number of times if the czars in our White House to deal with energy and health care had too much power” was in response to a reporter’s question. In fact, the first person to use the term “czar” in that briefing was Fox News reporter Major Garrett.
– At the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner in June, Obama was joking when he said, “ABC is planning a series called ‘Dancing with the Czars.’” It was part of his comedy routine at the dinner.
– Hannity’s fourth clip was taken from the same March 11 press briefing as his second clip. In fact, it was in response to the exact same question, and came just a sentence later.
So basically, all Hannity could come up with is one legitimate use by the Obama administration of the term “czars.” All the others were in response to a reporter’s question or when the President was joking at the media’s overuse of the term.
It’s the media, not the White House, that is driving the term. A search of the White House website finds that the only time Obama actually uses the term “czar” is in reference to Kerlikowske. This position, of course, isn’t new; George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan all had drug czars. The rest of the results for “czar” on the White House website are from reporters’ questions or responses to those questions.
Additionally, many of the positions being referred to as “czars” are actually long-standing positions — not ones instituted by Obama. Others have already been confirmed by the Senate.
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…weeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaak…
But we’d expect nothing less from Hannity, would we?
September 9th, 2009 at 11:04 amOF course this whole “Czar” routine is just another phony meme being floated by the right wing in an attempt to undermine the Admin.
Just like the birth certificate nonsense, or the horrible school speech, or the fact that Obama is a CommiIslamofascistic Socialist-Nazi out to destroy American take away all of our Freedumbs…
September 9th, 2009 at 11:07 amGee was it not Nixon that first use the czar quote
appointing a drug czar
wish all those on the right would sit down and understand how to look up and reference things.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:07 amWell what else would you expect froma college dropout who SHILLS for anything that is Reich Wing…..once again we have another conservative trying to rewrite history.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:08 amAnd since when does Inanity take his cues on language choice from the Obama administration, anyway?
September 9th, 2009 at 11:09 amThe Republic of Stupidity says:
Freedumbs…
freeDumbs you might be onto something there it seem that the wrong side sure like to be dumb about freedoms.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:09 amHannity: I Say ‘Czars’ Because It’s The Term The Obama Administration Uses
– - Gibbs: “I say ‘Hannity’ because I might offend a few delicate flowers if I called him by his rightful description: Douch*nozzle.“
September 9th, 2009 at 11:14 amThis is just another smoke screen to go after the president. It’s funny how they never seemed to have a problem with the other presidents calling some long standing positions czars, yet if Obama’s team call people czar’s it’s a nation outrage.
I’d like to see an in depth probe done on Hannity, Glenn, and any other right wing nut job who is gunning to “expose” these czar’s “dirty” secretes. I wonder what skeletons they have in their closets they don’t want exposed? Heck, if they were exposed, I wonder how they would react? Would they ignore it, blow up, or back off?
I also would highly suggest running a deep thorough background check on each republican senator/congressmen who is calling for the czar’s necks. I wonder what those background checks would find. Most definitely something they don’t want known but are criticizing others for. They got to be cheating on their taxes, taking bribes, or have a honey tucked away while they are in Washington DC. Those who preach high morals and attack others tend to have hidden problems of their own. Just look at Gov. Mark Sandford.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:16 am“Next on Hannity: Does Obama need this many people taking notes? The Obama Administration is overflowing with Secretaries. A CEO of a company might have two secretaries but how many does Obama have? We’ll expose the wasteful overload of Obama’s Secretaries of Defense, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Interior, and MORE – next on Hannity!”
September 9th, 2009 at 11:16 amHannity is the self-appointed lie czar.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:18 amWeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:18 amHannity: I Say ‘Czars’ Because It’s The Term The Obama Administration Uses
– - I suppose it’s possible that Hannity was being czardonic.
(cough)
September 9th, 2009 at 11:20 amGad. What a retard.
And I apologize to retards everywhere for that vile insult.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:22 amRepublicans fail at:
Science
Comedy
Common Sense
Compassion
Honesty
They’re nothing if not brain-dead zombies.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:22 amBadmoodman says:
Do I detect a Cznark?
September 9th, 2009 at 11:23 amHannity is a dumb phuck and so are his viewers and Fixed news.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:27 amHannity is a czartoon. (And you can quote me on that!)
September 9th, 2009 at 11:29 amMediaMatters reports that O’Reilly called for MORE czars repeatedly during the Bush administration.
They really don’t care how they look, do they?
September 9th, 2009 at 11:31 amDNFP says:
Do I detect a Cznark?
Most excellent :)
September 9th, 2009 at 11:32 amRachel Maddow also hit on the czar issue – very clarifying – perhaps Hannity would finally be able to comprehend since she used visuals.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:32 amHannity is such a freaking moron!
September 9th, 2009 at 11:35 amHannity appears to still possess a lot of hostility
September 9th, 2009 at 11:36 amfrom all those years of getting beat up on the playground.
rachel had the BEST explanation of all this last night…
even bringing in my favorite SNL character, Emily Litella !!!
“oh… never mind.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#32747928
September 9th, 2009 at 11:36 amIf I had one wish I would wish for the ability to crawl through my television screen just so I could wring Sean Insanity’s neck.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:42 amThere sure is a lot of czarcasm on this thread.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:43 amViolins on television….! LMAO! God did SNL rock back than!
September 9th, 2009 at 11:43 amtom says:
There sure is a lot of czarcasm on this thread.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:44 am““““““““““““““““““““““““““““
czarry…
Isn’t Czarkozy the leader of France…? Okay I will stop..
September 9th, 2009 at 11:46 amPerhaps the whiny reichwingers would feel better if we used the Romanov version… Tsars ???
September 9th, 2009 at 11:46 amI’m just czorry I get to read all these punny posts!
September 9th, 2009 at 11:47 amFrom now on, members of the Obama Administration should refer to the complete job title rather than use the term “czar”, for example “Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs” rather than “border czar”. Hannity et al won’t be able to follow that many big words put together.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:47 amYikes! I just wasted 3 minutes reading about this non issue!
September 9th, 2009 at 11:48 amDear Lord! Regan and Bush Sr. had ‘Czars!’ Are these people nuts? Don’t they remember? Of course THEY do. The just want the rest of Americans to forget. Unreal.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:50 amHow is anyone still watching Hannity? How do you get so much boredom and rage in one show?
September 9th, 2009 at 11:51 amThe Previous administration had plenty of their own Czars:
A few that come to mind…
Cheney…water-boarding Czar
September 9th, 2009 at 11:51 amBush……You shot at my Pappy Czar
Rove……Lying Czar
Ridge……Flip flop Czar
Bachmann….Guano Czar
Boehner…A mind is a terrible thing to waste Czar
… the whole fox empire is just plain ugly…
and the single most obvious reason as to this country’s troubles:
keeping the people stupid.
Obama Was Overconfident on Health Care
September 9th, 2009 at 11:51 amFOXNews – Greg Gutfeld – ?1 hour ago?
On Wednesday President Obama addresses a joint session of Congress and you know it’s going to be about some important stuff. For a moment I thought maybe we’d hear something about the economy, the War on Terror, Iraq, or the “Sex and …
Hannity, the Czar Czar Binks of punditry, except for the good intentions and the heroics.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:52 amDNFP says,
Republicans fail at:
Science
Comedy
Common Sense
Compassion
Honesty
They’re nothing if not brain-dead zombies
September 9th, 2009 at 11:54 am——————————————————-
and they EXCELL at HYPOCRISY and the rewriting of history.
MADDOW: The land of the czars? That sounds so Russia 1916. Who are these czar people and where did they come from? Well, at least, partly, they came from Richard Nixon.
Nixon appointed John Love and then William Simon to be his energy czars. Ben Zimmer reported at “Slate.com” last year that Nixon actually used the phrase “energy czar” when he offered Mr. Simon that job as in, “Wouldn‘t you like to be my energy czar?”
But despite the fact that Nixon actually used the term, the word “czar” wasn‘t actually in the job title. This revelation may bring out a little Emily Litella in all the conservatives going crazy about President Obama‘s czars right now.
But people who have jobs in the administration that are called “the something-czar” aren‘t actually czars of anything. Czar – sorry to say, it‘s a nickname. The drug czar is actually the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Poppy Bush created that job in 1989.
(to be continued)
September 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pm(contd)
The intelligence czar is the Director of National Intelligence, created during the George W. Bush administration in 2005. The AIDS czar – that‘s the nickname for the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy that job created in 2001.
The border czar, that‘s another one created by George W. Bush. It‘s the nickname for the Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs in the Department of Homeland Security.
The job the right is now calling the science czar, that‘s the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The regulatory czar is the nickname for the Head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which Dave Weigel notes at the “Washington Independent” today is an office that was created back in 1980.
So take your pick, America. Either these are the czars who are turning America into imperialist Russia, as Emily Litella might say. Or these are people with specific policy jobs and long awkward job titles.
So the press calls them czars even though they‘re not actually 19th century Russian autocrats. Bush and Cheney created administration jobs that were nicknamed the food safety czar, the cybersecurity czar, aforementioned regulatory czar and the AIDS czar. They created a bird flu czar and a manufacturing czar and more.
And the right did not freak about those like Bolsheviks in St. Petersburg. But President Obama? Clearly his hiring practices are evidence of him forming a communist-fascist-czarist-Kenyan-Martian shadow government here to take away your guns.
Or he‘s doing what American presidents have done without controversy for generations. In which case – never mind.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:09 pmWhen your audience can’t spell “lunch”, let alonge remember what it had for lunch yesterday, it’s not necessary – you’re always going to be the smartest guy in the room.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:12 pmThis is a tempest in a tea pot.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:16 pmpags2 says:
This is a tempest in a tea pot.
Yep, and this bullsh*t is what you get when you have to fill 24 hours/7 days a week. As Jon Stewart said about Jim Cramer/CNBC and their bullsh*t, maybe that’s the problem. …Aside from FOX Cznews pushing their agenda.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:28 pmIf we could get that Kucinich/Paul ticket in 2012 we would be rid of all Czars!
September 9th, 2009 at 12:34 pmI’ve said it for years:
If it’s on “TeeVee” 24/7, it ain’t news.
It’s entertainment.
Like MTV, the first hugely popular 24hour television station.
Nothing more.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pmFox News does not force people to be stupid; they elect to be that way. There are many news outlets on TV and each outlet has a political viewpoint of which people are aware. Viewers have many choices from which to get their news and political commentary.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:40 pmOh! Oh! Oh! But it sounds so Russian!
It further identifies Obama with communism, or is it Marxism this week?
September 9th, 2009 at 12:52 pmSee, whatever Bush/Reagan did, that was just peachy — that didn’t sound Russian at all, and anyone who said so was labeled as un-American.
Oh those funny drop-outs turned bartender are really the leading edge of Fox [far from balanced] reporting.
No misinformation or distortions in this, no sir, not at all, why this nothing but outstanding reporting….
(gag, spit)
September 9th, 2009 at 12:57 pmThe “czar” label has always been a form of inside the beltway slang. It seems like a relic of the cold war at this point.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:08 pmAn apology regarding my post #15: I’d just like to say I’m czarry.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:11 pmYou would only be rid of “czars”, Tundra, if you were to silence the press. I mean, since the President calls his advisers “advisers” 99.999999% of the time.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:53 pmTundra says:
I see you have given up even TRYING and just went full troll. Full ignorance on display. The thing is we already know how stupid you are and what a waste of life it is to read the stupid that is the full content of your posts lately. So you are superflous. You are completely worthless. An ignorant waste of time punkass troll. You were always stupid. You are always going to be stupid. Nothing you can do about that. Now you dont even try to engage in the discussion. I guess because you know you are too stupid to contribute. Ok. Good luck MORON
September 9th, 2009 at 2:26 pmAnd “Czar” is also the term used by Carter as well as the Bushies and other good neocons.
But of course, by defining his job as getting rid of Obama’s Czars (story in yesterday’s TP)didn’t Hanity admit that he is not a news show but rather a political action committee ?
NOTE: I’m not surprised that Faux is a PAC, I’m just surprised that they’re admitting it.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:28 pmOne of Shammity’s statements to the crowd of knuckle draggers over the weekend:
HANNITY: Do you want another czar?
CROWD: No!
HANNITY: I don’t think so. By the way, we got rid of one, and my job starting tomorrow night is to get rid of every other one. I promise you that!
Hey folks in the crowd-he also promised to have himself waterboarded, for charity, so he could prove that waterboarding wasn’t torture!
September 9th, 2009 at 3:08 pmHow’d that promise turn out?
When are you Conservative dimwits going to stop believing these dishonest right-wing Liars?
Uggg. More seditious speech from another Repuglican. What a coward. Go and do us all a favor and drowned yourself.
September 9th, 2009 at 4:10 pmhannratty should be beck’s cell mate starting this afternoon..
September 9th, 2009 at 5:09 pmI’m sure this has already been suggested, but perhaps it’s time to change our names again?
Czar of Crazy Cat Ladies
September 9th, 2009 at 6:06 pmThank you for your sharing.!
September 11th, 2009 at 3:15 pmCongressman Pence is right. It is disconcerting to know that somewhere in Washington lurks a shadow government consisting of people with enormous power; people that we know so little about. yüz germe
September 15th, 2009 at 7:16 am