The term as far as it applies to the U.S. government was entirely a media invention, and has happened before.
President George H. Bush (aka Prince George the Oblivious) appointed William Bennett, Reagan’s Secretary of Education, as the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Since Bennett was in essence completely in charge of the U.S. “war on drugs” (a completely pointless, tragic, devastatingly harmful money pit of a government program), the press got around to calling Bennett the drug “czar” (the title used by the pre-Bolshevik rulers of Russia).
The approbation stuck, and the use of the term “czar” to denote presidentially-appointed personnel who wield plenipotentiary powers to create and implement policy became common.
Now, those who don’t know history continue to demonstrate their preponderance to repeat it. When the early U.S. presidents gathered trusted friends about them to advise on domestic and foreign issues, the press and Congress began to derisively call such groups of advisors “kitchen cabinets”. The phrase got shortened to “cabinet”, and became calcified (if not codified) into governmental structure.
It was the same damned thing.
So, the ignorant who wring their hands about “commie pinkos” being appointed can now unclench and take a breath.
