Obama fashions a government of many czars

Veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke has the Afghanistan-Pakistan portfolio, Dennis Ross is the Iran point person and George Mitchell is the Middle East envoy.

Buchanan said it is up to Obama to make sure they all work together and that rival power centers do not develop that compete for the president's favor.

"The key is whether the president is adept at managing the kind of pathologies that can flow out of setting up these rival power centers," Buchanan said.

Linda Fowler, a professor of government at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, said presidents often appoint czars in a symbolic move to show they care about an issue. They also are trying to control a sprawling bureaucracy, she added.

"Presidents of both parties have done this because they are all dealing with this problem, this huge bureaucracy that has built up over the last 100 years. All presidents seem to have this idea that if they can just get it in the right direction, they can redirect the Queen Mary," she said, referring to the massive ocean liner.

(Editing by Will Dunham)