Lists drawn up by conservative groups detail as many as 40 czars linked to Obama, although some of the positions existed before he took office, and some did win Senate approval. There’s “faith-based czar” Joshua DuBois, who heads the White House’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, a post President George W. Bush created in 2001; “Afghanistan czar” Richard C. Holbrooke, appointed by Obama as special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan; “intelligence czar” Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, an office created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; “Mideast peace czar” George J. Mitchell; and “border czar” Alan Bersin, an assistant secretary of homeland security charged with improving security along the southern border…

Fueled by right-wing commentators such as Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, the issue has grown into a staple of anti-Obama activism. On Saturday, at a march in Washington protesting big government, some demonstrators carried signs saying “Czars belong in Russia.”