Partisan bickering in Washington has so many bigger things to fight about these days – health-care reform and climate change among them – that it is sad, rather than amusing, to watch the Democrats and Republicans sparring over the notion of administration ‘czars’.

Czars are senior advisors appointed directly by the president. In most cases their appointment does not need to confirmed by the Senate, and they are not subject to Congressional oversight as directors of federal agencies would be. Their background is also apparently not as rigorously fact-checked as it could be; the latest frenzy in Washington peaked when conservative commentators found that Van Jones, Obama’s ‘green jobs czar’, had signed a questionable petition about the Bush administration role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Jones resigned earlier this month (FoxNews).

Republican talk-show hosts such as Glenn Beck have forced the issue of czars onto centre stage. And many of these positions involve key science and technology posts in the Obama administration. Carol Browner is his ‘climate czar’, overseeing cross-agency efforts to deal with energy and climate change – not, of course, to be confused with Todd Stern, who also shows up on lists of czars but whose role is as chief climate envoy to the United Nations climate talks.

Obama’s love of technology has triggered a crop of titles in this arena: Vivek Kundra is his ‘information czar’, and Aneesh Chopra his ‘technology czar’.

Some czar positions have been around for a while; George W. Bush created the ‘faith-based czar’ position, and the ‘science czar’ (a.k.a. presidential science advisor) has been around for decades (although it is a Senate-confirmed position as the head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy).

Next up on the target list appears to be David Michaels, a distinguished epidemiologist and Obama’s choice for head of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. The Washington Times minced no words this month in calling Michaels “one [of] the nation’s foremost proponents of allowing junk science to be used in jackpot-justice lawsuits.”

The White House has fired back with what it calls “”https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/The-Truth-About-Czars/“>the truth about czars”.