It's one of those issues that just won't go away largely because President Obama has appointed barely half of the executive branch employees he's supposed to, and so many of those that he has appointed have had ethics problems or received "waivers" for the lobbying activities.The whole czar system is a vetting disaster waiting to happen as Volokh's Ilya Somin points out:Jones' ridiculous beliefs probably aren't typical of those of the administration's many other czars. However, the fact that a person like him could be appointed to an important czar position does highlight one of the weaknesses of the czar system: by circumventing the normal appointment and confirmation process, it makes it more likely that a poorly qualified person or one with ridiculous policy views will be put in charge of important issues.And in Jones case as well as for other czars, they were not required to fill out the questionnaire that other Obama appointees were forced to do - or so the White House...(Read Full Post)