On July 30, the Washington Post gave House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) space to write an op-ed railing on President Obama’s “virtual army of ‘czars.’” Today, the Washington Post allowed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to write a similar op-ed complaining that these czars set “a dangerous precedent that undermines the Constitution’s guarantee of separated powers.” Hutchison tries to make these officials seem shady and mysterious by noting that many of them don’t even have “formal titles”:

Nearly 250 years later, these critical lines of separation are being obscured by a new class of federal officials. A few of them have formal titles, but most are simply known as “czars.” They hold unknown levels of power over broad swaths of policy. Under the Obama administration, we have an unprecedented 32 czar posts (a few of which it has yet to fill), including a “car czar,” a “pay czar” and an “information czar.” There are also czars assigned to some of the broadest and most consequential topics in policy, including health care, terrorism, economics and key geographic regions.

In fact, ALL of these officials have formal titles. For example, Hutchison cites Van Jones, the “green jobs czar.” But Jones had the title of Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise, and Innovation at the Council on Environmental Quality. The only person Obama has referred to as a czar is “drug czar” Gil Kerlikowske, whose official title is Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. (Additionally, “drug czar” was a term that existed long before the Obama administration.)

Hutchison’s lie mirrors a claim by Fox News’ Sean Hannity, who recently said that the only reason he calls these appointees “czars” is “because the White House itself does.” Of course, it’s the media — not the White House — that is driving the term.

Hutchison does not list the 32 individuals whom she considers to be “czars.” But if she’s relying on the same list as Cantor — who also cited 32 people — then several of them are far from unaccountable; they’ve actually already been confirmed by the Senate.

Today on ABC’s This Week, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) defended Rep. Joe “You Lie!” Wilson’s (R-SC) concern that undocumented immigrants would be able to get federal health care benefits. Although Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stated that President Obama and Congress have made it clear that undocumented immigrants shouldn’t “have access to the new health insurance exchange,” Pawlenty claimed that they will still will “show up” and “get the services” because no one checks their citizenship status. When Stephanopoulos called out his inaccurate claim, Pawlenty stumbled for a response:

PAWLENTY: Well, there’s a missing piece here, George. And even if you have language that says illegal immigrants will not be a part of this program — unless you have the enforcement mechanism in place, it doesn’t mean much. In Minnesota, we have laws that say illegal immigrants won’t get many services, but unless somebody actually checks, guess what, they show up and they get the services.

STEPHANOPOULOS: There’s been a study done by the House Oversight Committee that showed these Medicaid provisions, they spent about $8 million to enforce and they caught eight illegal immigrants.

PAWLENTY: Well, clearly, though, if you have a law that’s unenforced, it isn’t much of a law. So first of all, if the secretary is saying we’re going to have a provision in the bill that says illegal immigrants will not be covered, that’s progress, but we also need to make sure we can back that up with proper enforcement.

Watch it:

Over at the Wonk Room, Igor Volsky has more on Pawlenty’s inaccurate claim and points out that “documentation requirements may be weeding out more eligible applicants than illegals.”

Actress Tina Fey received an Emmy Award yesterday for her Saturday Night Live portrayals of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Accepting her sixth Emmy, Fey thanked her parents, “who are lifelong Republicans, for their patience.” “Mrs. Palin is an inspiration to working mothers everywhere because she bailed on her job right before Fourth of July weekend,” Fey added. “You are living my dream. Thank you, Mrs. Palin.”

Today on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Joe “You Lie!” Wilson (R-SC) said that he will not offer an apology to the House for his conduct during President Obama’s joint address to Congress. The House leadership has said that unless Wilson apologizes, they will introduce a resolution of disapproval. Later in the show today, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol issued a desperate plea for Democrats to leave Wilson — who has a “reputation for bipartisanship” — alone. He said that Pelosi will be leading the party “off the cliff” if they rebuke Wilson:

KRISTOL: Can I just say one thing? He [Obama] is leading his party off a cliff, and Speaker Pelosi is going to lead his party — her party off the cliff if they try to rebuke Joe Wilson.

He has apologized. It will be a disgrace if they do some stunt in the House to try to humiliate this man, who is, in fact — has a reputation for bipartisanship on the Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee he’s on.

Obama and Pelosi are leading the party off a cliff, I think, and I hope a lot of Democrats say, Slow down. Let’s take a look at this bill.

Watch it:

Republican leaders, including Minority Leader John Boehner (OH), have also been pressuring Wilson to apologize to the House.