Obama's Czars Poisoning Cabinet

News this week of the first departure of a Cabinet secretary from the Obama administration comes amid a wide-ranging effort under the new chief of staff, William M. Daley, to repair badly frayed relations between the White House and the Cabinet….Both sides were deeply disgruntled. Agency heads privately complained that the White House was a "fortress" that was unwilling to accept input and that micromanaged their departments. Senior administration advisers rolled their eyes in staff meetings at the mention of certain Cabinet members, participants said…Part of the problem, people on both sides said, has been an abundance of issue specialists - the "czars" - who manage matters on the environment and the economy within the West Wing. "The White House loops people out. The czars keep people from getting in," said one senior Democratic official who has fielded such complaints from three agency heads. "The level of frustration is pretty high."