God help me, the (very) senior senator from West Virginia is right. From moving the census to a partisan pitbull’s control to giving regular advisers unprecedented control in the West Wing, Obama’s been slowly chipping away at the system. The same system the left constantly accused Bush of trying to erode.

In a letter to Obama on Wednesday, Byrd complained about Obama’s decision to create White House offices on health reform, urban affairs policy, and energy and climate change. Byrd said such positions “can threaten the Constitutional system of checks and balances. At the worst, White House staff have taken direction and control of programmatic areas that are the statutory responsibility of Senate-confirmed officials.”…

“As presidential assistants and advisers, these White House staffers are not accountable for their actions to the Congress, to cabinet officials, and to virtually anyone but the president,” Byrd wrote. “They rarely testify before congressional committees, and often shield the information and decision-making process behind the assertion of executive privilege. In too many instances, White House staff have been allowed to inhibit openness and transparency, and reduce accountability.”

The West Virginia Democrat on Wednesday asked Obama to “consider the following: that assertions of executive privilege will be made only by the president, or with the president’s specific approval; that senior White House personnel will be limited from exercising authority over any person, any program, and any funding within the statutory responsibility of a Senate-confirmed department or agency head; that the president will be responsible for resolving any disagreement between a Senate-confirmed agency or department head and White House staff; and that the lines of authority and responsibility in the administration will be transparent and open to the American public.”

Will Obama listen? I thoroughly doubt it. I think Obama’s setting up the new Frankfurters, Moleys, and Tugwells in a sense. His advisers are going to have significant power and he’s going to try to get as much under his (or Rahm’s) control as possible. The question is when he’s going to overstep with his own court packing-esque plan.