Wanted: Crisis Manager in Chief; A Key Challenge in Auto Bailout Is Finding 'Czar' to Oversee Change
President Richard Nixon appointed the first energy czars, John Love and later William Simon, in the wake of the 1973 gasoline shortage. Congress mandated a drug czar during the crack cocaine epidemic in 1982. And President Bill Clinton named Ira Magaziner his health czar to craft legislation in 1993.</br></br>It's hardly a record of success; problems persist in all those areas. But with the automobile companies in crisis and the public tired of providing bailouts for American corporations, Congress and the Bush administration are on the verge of creating a new czar or committee to oversee efforts to rescue Detroit's largest automakers.</br></br>"If they can no longer pay their own way, it is entirely appropriate for someone to put the hammer down and say 'That's it,' " said Richard Breeden, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the court-appointed monitor for the scandal-ridden communications giant, WorldCom. "If taxpayers are going to support General Motors, let's turn General Motors into a company worthy of it."</br></br>The choice of a czar -- or czarina -- is the plan's first obstacle. President Bush, who would appoint the czar or overseers, and Democratic leaders in Congress have very different ideas about who would make the best choice.</br></br>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) mentioned former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker as the type of person she would support. As he exited an hour-long meeting with House Democrats yesterday afternoon, Volcker waved off reporters' questions, declining to state whether he was interested in the post. Volcker has already been tapped to advise President-elect Barack Obama on economic issues.