Here a czar, there a czar...

The Obama Administration announced the appointment of Kenneth Feinberg, the "pay czar" who will the set the pay for executives at Wall Street firms receiving bailout funds. A key role, given public outrage at Wall Street bonuses, but more importantly: What's with all the "czars" running around D.C.?

Cyber czar. Car czar. Terrorism czar. Drug czar. Energy czar. Border czar. TARP czar. As Sen. John McCain recently quipped on Twitter, "Obama has more czars than the Romanovs." (Meet Obama's czars here, courtesy of Talking Points Memo's slideshow.)

Back in April, David J. Rothkopf at Foreign Policy magazine estimated that the number of "czars" appointed by President Obama is hovering somewhere around 18, but Reuters estimates the current number to be around 21.

To be clear, a "czar" is not an official title. It's a catchy title coined by political insiders as an alternative to the more staid "appointee." A czar is also not a new concept: Presidents going back to Roosevelt have appointed czars during their administrations. But what rubs people the wrong way isn't so much the connotation of Russian dictators as the power these people hold.

As presidential appointees, czars are not required to undergo Senate confirmations hearings; they get the call, and then get to business. Sen. Robert Byrd is not a fan of the process, and according to Fox News, sent a letter to Obama in March, expressing his disapproval:

"“The rapid and easy accumulation of power by White House staff can threaten the constitutional system of checks and balances."

Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute tells Reuters that accountability is a key concern:

"You can imagine from the perspective of the Senate that you're dealing with people who do not have confirmation to go through and so are not accountable in the same way. I think that's what rankles some people in the Senate."

Feinberg's official title is "special master" and according to Politico, he's the man Wall Street execs should start buttering up to:

The czar ... will have the power to reject pay plans that include “excessive or inappropriate” salaries inside companies that have taken "exceptional assistance" from the federal government, and will set the pay for some of the nation's top financial executives. The government’s review of salaries will include the top 100 employees.

Time's "2-Minute Bio" on Feinberg reports that he's been a busy special master in recent years: He also oversaw payouts to September 11 victims and families and served as the administrator of the fund set up for the families of the Virginia Tech shooting victims. As the head of the almost $7 billion September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, Feinberg, along with a staff of 22, decided who would be compensated and how much. That's a lot of power.

Appointing a single person to address a serious issue may seem a win-win for the president — the announcement itself makes news, and it shows the public that administration is getting things done. No faceless panels and subcommittees, no red-tape, no snail-like bureaucracy.

The danger lies in that eventually, there may be too many cooks in the kitchen, creating a logjam as difficult to navigate as the very bureaucracy they were supposed to avoid.

- Lili Ladaga

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