White House Still Has a Vacancy for a Lesser Czar

In an East Room speech at the end of May, President Obama declared a new "strategic national asset": the computer networks our country depends on to keep trains running and planes from colliding, to control weapons systems and allow banks to process payments. He also promised to "personally" select a White House cybersecurity coordinator to advise him on all things cyber and to coordinate cyber-policies across the government. Two months later, White House staffers have approached a number of prospects, but still no pick. What's not to like about being Obama's cyber-czar? First, you're not really a czar, reporting as you would to national security adviser Jim Jones and White House economic adviser Larry Summers. Second, "It's a huge, huge turf war. You have Defense fighting the Treasury fighting the intel groups fighting Homeland Security" for control, he said.