Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back Into The Water... Another Czar Shows Up

On what I thought would be a slow blog day, the Obama administration comes to the rescue again, this time in the wonderful world of Obama's Czar world. Just when you thought we had gone to the most outrageous extremes relative to assigning White House Czars, the administration does itself one better: it recently announced the appointment of a so-called "fish Czar" to battle the bighead and silver carp that are threatening to enter the Great Lakes. Yes, we now have an official government entity focused solely (get it, sole, a fish?) on two invasive species of carp fish.

Before we throw our line into this story, let me make a few comments. I do not mean to belittle or minimize the problem of these invasive species of carp. They have been heading up the Mississippi for many, many years and have left a path of destruction in their wake. They can grow to over a hundred pounds, they crowd out native species, they can destroy the local ecosystem, they are difficult to catch, and they can be dangerous to boaters, given their ability to jump high out of the water at the sound of an approaching motor boat. Most experts expect a serious ecological problem if they are successful in establishing themselves in the Great Lakes. Thus, I am not trying to minimize the magnitude of the problem, it is a problem that must be dealt with.

However, it is the way that this government and political class are dealing with it that is a major concern. The creation of another department within this administration, and the budget and resources that goes with it raises a number of troubling issues:

• Shouldn't, and couldn't, this matter been handled by experts in the Federal government's Interior Department? One would think that this is their responsibility, especially since they have a bureau within the Department titled Bureau of Fish and Wildlife? If they are not up to the task and this inability caused additional resources and taxpayer money to be expended and a new czar department to be created, shouldn't the people that operate these related parts of the Interior Department be fired for incompetence?
• Shouldn't, and couldn't, this matter been handled by an existing czar, the Great Lakes Czar? If the concern is that the invasive species will cause great damage to the Great Lakes, who better to handle the problem than Obama's Great Lakes Czar? What else could this czar be working on that is so important that we had to create another czar department focused on the same bodies of water? If the Great Lakes czar and his staff are not up to the task, then they need to be fired for incompetence.
• Shouldn't, and couldn't, this matter been handled by the EPA since we are talking about environmental protection of the Great Lakes? If you go to the EPA's website, you see that this organization has been working on this issue for over ten years. Could it be that they have no clue on how to fix the problem, given what little success they have had over the past decade? Maybe they should be fired for incompetence?
• Given that the Federal government and several state governments have been working on this issue for a very long time, why was this czar appointed now, many, many months after the original czars were appointed? Could it have something to do with a lawsuit against the Army Corp. of Engineers and a water agency in the Chicago city government by the state of Michigan? Given that Obama has shown himself to be mostly a political animal rather than a national leader, one cannot help but think the appointment at this point in time has something to do with bailing out the Federal government (Corp. Of Engineers) and his friends back in his home city of Chicago from this state government lawsuit and his little to do with the invasive species problem.
• What will be different once this new czar is in place? Other attempts to slow down the spread of these fish by the government have been ineffective, whether it has been trying to electrocute them or poison them. In fact, in a well documented story, one attempt to poison the carp resulted in thousands of native fish being killed and one, yes one, carp being killed. It is unclear what this newly appointed czar will bring to the table that some other Federal bureaucrat cannot bring to the table. The only good news in this area is that the gentleman appointed appears to have good credentials for the job, it was not like Obama appointed someone who had no experience or talent for the assignment.

The whole thing sounds fishy to me. Why yet another czar (an appointment that, of course, bypasses the Constitutional responsibility of Congress to review high ranking people in the executive branch and thus, undermining the Constitution), why haven't Federal employees in the EPA, Interior Department, or the Great Lakes Czar office been fired for incompetence if another czar had to be named and why now? As with everything else, this administration does not have any strategic and overall plans for anything. It seems they just dash from problem to problem, naming czars or implementing unrelated tactics, hoping something will work. Well, hoping is not a strategy, and just because the political class has taken action, does not mean that anything will get done. We have covered many instances where laws and programs were passed or instituted but never actually solved the core problem (see a recent post, "Bad Laws Behaving Badly" for a detailed set of examples).

Step 34 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" might be a worthwhile step to have had in place in this situation. Step 34 would remove all politicians from Congressional committee posts for not performing up to a minimum standard of performance. Since this problem has been around for over a decade, those Congressional members sitting on the committees responsible for this matter should have been removed from those posts. If you cannot solve a problem like this in ten years, it is unlikely you will ever solve it. Thus, you should be removed and give someone else a chance to fix the invasive fish problem. It's called accountability and should apply to politicians and federal employees alike who have failed us in this matter.

My prediction: you can kiss the Great Lakes ecosystem good bye. The courts are involved, overlapping Federal jurisdictions and departments are involved, and after many, many years, the fish are still winning and getting might close to the Great Lakes. There is no plan for fighting this battle. If there was, I would have thought it would already be in place and working, it is not like this problem just popped up yesterday.

Again, I am not trying to minimize the magnitude of the threat, it appears to be a genuine one. However, attacking the problem like the politicians attack and fail at all other problems, great amount of fanfare at the onset, followed by bureaucratic bungling immediately afterward with no accountability for results, gives me little hope that this battle will be won. As with most government programs, everyone is in charge (EPA, Army Corp. Of Engineers, Interior Department, Great Lakes Czar, Fish Czar, state governments) but no one will be held responsible for failed results. That's where I net out.



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