David Weigel writes in the Washington Independent that Republican Whip Eric Cantor is up in arms about the prospect of such radicals as Cass Sunstein joining what he calls Obama's "virtual army of 'czars'--each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House." Specifically, Obama has named his vastly learned former University of Chicago colleague to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and Glenn Beck and the rest of his tag-team of McCarthyites are collectively beside themselves about their fantasy of Operation Radical Trojan Horsemen, the most audacious Obama power grab since Death Panels.

Senators John Cornyn and Saxby Chambliss have placed holds on Sunstein's appointment because they find him insufficiently enthusiastic about hunting. Another, yet unnamed member of the World's Most Overrated Legislative Body has joined them.

Before Cantor heads too far out on Beck's limb, he might want to reconsider not only the facts of the matter (Sunstein's brand of "libertarian paternalism" pleased the WSJ editorial board, who called him "A Regulator With Promise--Really") but his metaphor. Actually, a whole army of czars sounds like a pushover. No one to shovel manure, no one to clean up the dishes, no one to mow the lawn of the...czar-in-chief?

More seriously, it sounds as thought the wackjob purge campaign has put its ham-fist on the problem with the theory of the unitary executive. If a president is not to do every last piece of executive work him- or (someday) -herself, there must be subordinate executives. If the Constitution and subsequent legislation do not require them to be confirmed by Congress, then it would seem that they shouldn't have to be.

No doubt Professor Sunstein could fill in the references.

By the way, originalists, since when is the Constitution served by a single senator blocking an appointment?