Sen. Bob Bennett told a Senate hearing Thursday he is not a hypocrite for criticizing President Barack Obama for appointing many "czars" to oversee initiatives, while Bennett himself also once pushed to create a czar.

Bennett in 1997 asked President Bill Clinton to appoint a "Y2k czar" to oversee a problem where officials worried computers worldwide might crash on Jan. 1, 2000 because of coding problems with dates.

Bennett said that problem cut across departmental lines, so a "czar" was needed to oversee it. But he said he joined in criticism of Obama this year for appointing czars to oversee problems that do not cross departmental lines and could be handled by Cabinet members.

"That is a very different situation," he told a hearing about czars before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

He noted, "The White House has specifically identified me as being hypocritical on his issue."

But, he said, "I do not feel in any way that it is hypocritical for me to have taken the role I did with respect to Y2k and now say there's something that needs investigating. … I am not changing positions just for political purposes."

Bennett had earlier joined five other GOP senators in a letter complaining that Obama's heavy use of czars "undermines the Constitution."

He renewed such criticism at the hearing Thursday, saying, "The vague duties of these (Obama) czars leaves a very urgent question unanswered of who is driving policy in this country."

He asked, "Is it the czars or the Cabinet secretaries who are calling the shots? We are facing critical moments in shaping legislation that will have an impact on generations to come, and to leave blurred lines in management is completely dangerous and foolish."

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