talk show host jack parr.

put these in perspective from your the way you look at it, and they're importance in our country the supreme court well you know like many americans i revere the court. it is a fascinating political development and it's had a significant impact on our politics and our presidential politics. that in the last generation or so. a discernible difference his emerged on the right the court is seen as absolutely essential and indeed any number of more traditional republicans, for example are willing to go along with the trump presidency specifically because of the court and because first of all

of the justice that he's already put on the court and because of the expectation that if he serves a full term what alone two that he will have additional opportunities to shape the court along conservative ends for some reason conservatives have a strategy a long-term strategy. and a passion about the court. which traditionally and it's relative. is west animating? on the left and i and i don't i don't fully understand it because the court and its rulings. are every bit is important? on the left you know. and the cultural wars increasingly have migrated from the political arena. because congress current or won't address intractable issues. they wind up in the courts how powerful in your opinion has the

court been in relationship began to the i want to ask you about four different areas the media. the court the congress and the white house and over time how that's changed. and how do you perceive those institutions? and what impact they have? well, the media said we talked a little bit about how you know, the media have evolved. you know, i always use the example that. the oval office speech you know used to be a staple. indeed it was it was it was one of the great tools in the presidential tool chest a weapon in his arsenal. it was in many ways the the chief weapon in the in the in the battle to persuade americans and the media were winning or not an ally to revert to the

days when three men in towers in new york controlled 95% of the audience richard nixon or an underlying on a monday afternoon could call. make three phone calls and the president would have an audience of 70 million people that night. and it was unfiltered. except at the end poor eric severidewood offer his instant analysis. at nixon could move and i'm not saying out nixon ronald reagan. had great success likewise. it's no accident. that that was just on the cusp. of cable tv. and then the internet which have destroyed? that element of the bully pulpit i would argue today. and all there are very few oval office addresses. first of all, the networks might not cover them.

and and more important fine, you can watch it through other through other media. but the odds are you know, there are millions of people as i say who are self-appointed ever severides. who? twitter they're incident analysis before speech is over by the way, what's wrong with it? it makes it a lot harder for a president. to be heard. state of the union address the class example it's not the media that killed the state of the union address lending johnson. decided in the 60s to move it from noon. to the evening. if you don't want a brand idea, you know, you hugely increased the audience. here's the problem.

the television camera distorts everything it comes in contact with eventually it destroys. semblance of spontaneity or naturalness the state of the union address is now kabuki theater. it belongs to cable tv. who spend a week? building up non-existent suspense and speculating about what it might contain and how it might influence. the electoral calendar that follows and that happens. ronald reagan took it up another notch by introducing the heroes in the balcony. remember those selfless people who jumped into the potomac river when planes crashed or rescued little girls and wells

or you know, whatever. it turned. george washington's annual address to congress which was in effect a ceos report to the stockholders into a highly stylized theatrical performance so now we we have stopped watching hand. to measure how long the speech grows we note how many times it's interrupted by applause. who applauds who doesn't applaud to someone shout out inappropriately? i would argue what i mean. it didn't begin with barack obama. when gerald ford in april of 1975 went before congress. in a last hopeless attempt to secure funding to he thought for

stole the collapse of the south vietnamese government at least two members of the house stood up and walked out. in protest so i mean, you know. that's fine. that's that's you know par for the course in a democracy and somehow that's more but it's part of the theater. this is my problem the theater of politics. heavily scripted visual and usually whacking. in nuance or or subtlety you know, it's a school of public relations. has corrupted american politics generally and events like the state of the union in particular. so, you know. they come along on the calendar. and they happen.

and the next day we move on to the next. made for tv sensation so we talked a little bit about the court a little bit about the media and that congress. well the court. it i mean i i understand why the right. is his passionate about the court because in many the court has become. not only the third branch of government, but the only branch of government that is actually passing judgment on large. social and economic issues. i mean the degree that congress is reluctant or unwilling. to address such issues it it seeds the function to the judiciary. and inevitably one result of that will be people who believe

that the courts are exceeding their end date. um, and that's part of the argument between left and depending i suppose on. on what you want how you want the court to rule? but the court arguably is doing that. because you know the hot potatoes are being tossed in its lap. by elected officials who for whatever reason have decided to abandon? there there legislative responsibilities the court so you know how many times we heard the line we want judges who will interpret the law not make the law fine then guess what then you stop making the law. you know, why are they having trouble from your perspective? making the law well a of it is cowardice. a lot of it is taking the short term about you know what it takes to get reelected.

playing to the perceived folks back home hasn't that always been there though? yeah, but i would i give the stakes are or higher. and the media profile is more intense. you know. i mean the other thing that we have mentioned in it's it sounds profoundly un-american to to mention it. the single biggest worry that i have about the future and in some ways i'm glad i won't be around. to see it either confirmed or denied. and what we call low information voters. i mean the great paradox is in a nation where? in theory we have access to more information than ever before. well information nation the number of people of 300 million

americans the number of people who follow closely follow government is is nowhere near the number of people who turn out to vote? even and off your election, but what would that been 100 years ago? women couldn't vote. no and you know, and i thought for the i'm not suggesting for a moment that the expansion of the electorate has has in any way produced that effect. the the difference is a hundred years ago. interesting enough look at the voter look at the voter turnouts, okay. the much maligned gilded age saw 80% turnouts, man i understandably. no african but but it's the only thing we have to measure.

all right, what i'm saying is of the political audience 80% cared enough were emotionally engaged enough. to vote, but do we know it? and actually i'm going further the fact that even then. large and growing numbers of women who were denied the vote were passionate enough about demanding the vote? to literally, you know throw themselves, you know. before the war and and and and worse in other words. in the gilded age people define themselves by the party they belong to as much as the church they belong to and in most cases both were for life.

stop the think. politics think of the multiple functions that politics played you didn't have television you didn't have the internet you didn't have forms of diversion or entertainment that we take for granted today politics. supplied much of that in addition think think of what it must be to have lived through the civil war. and the run-up to the civil war think of the of the effect of all of that concentrated accelerated history. that every single american carried around like the ball and chain. you know. attending jacob marley. but i mean think of the in a sense obligation that being part

of that generation imposed and think of the issues think of the enormity of the things that were being debated. you know. race relations in america the how were we to deal with four million former slaves. how were we to integrate them into our culture the rise of labor organized labor and the contrast with the great plutocratic fortunes the the surge in immigration. and the impact of tammany hall and other machines and the relationship that they established with immigrants. i mean, this was a country in what in huge profound ways i would argue. arguably more than today. and politics and and party identification, you know afforded people away.

to participate in and they still believed influence. i mean, it's no accident. that year election after election after election. you know. with uninspiring candidates, i believe that i think the single the biggest turnout in america history was with benjamin harris and ran against grover, cleveland. i mean neither of them. charismatic in the modern sense. can anyone remember what either of them said? so there was something larger than the candidates that drove this intense political activity. and and i i fear that's gone. but what about the possibility that everybody reveres the decoration of independence and the constitution? that those here without reading it well, but those documents were written to bring about a society that were closer to now

than we were then oh and that's why i would argue that american history. yeah, i often say the more, you know of our past. the more optimistic you'll be about our future. i i might question that right now but i mean but is they're in that right now though, you just don't like what's going on. no what i would argue you're right. well as i said the thrust of the question american history is a success. america has come and particularly the problem is we so often understandably look upon this in isolation. you've got to compare. what other country? for example has gone through the wrenching. redefining unfinished business of race relations now you could argue. they didn't they didn't have to because i mean the incredible diversity of this country which you know i would argue is one of

our great great strengths nevertheless poses real challenges. and there are periods. i wouldn't. positive theory of this. i wouldn't suggest that you can time your watch on it, but there are clearly periods in american history. when we are uncomfortable with that diversity when a native is strain. take center stage. it's insecurity. it's it's national insecurities. and stop and think what we're living through. the insecurities of economic performance the fact that yeah, look, let's face it globalization has bred a level of insecurity. that is arguably unprecedented. the insecurities of education fears legitimate fears that many

people hold about their place in a culture a culture that many people feel is slipping away from them. they don't understand they don't see the country that they grew up in. i mean all of those things i think breed a collective kind of insecurity and it's at times like that when we become more vulnerable. to demagoguery to xenophobia to use a fancy word when we become intrinsically more suspicious. of the outside world when or suspicious of people who aren't like us? and that's a recurring. conflict within american history but if you step back far enough. and you put it in broad enough perspective.

you accept the fact. that although we've gone off track. several times in our past there's a reason. if you go out on the mall. there are monuments to lincoln and washington and jefferson and fdr and not to buchanan and pierce. and fill in the blank it's because we build monuments. to the presidents who however in perfectly. and within the limitations of their day nevertheless broadly speaking. in their own way contributed to the realization of that potential the real miracle of philadelphia who left a more

representative society as their legacy and and that's what makes the optimists people like me. look at american history and see a broad theme a theme. haltingly imperfectly but nevertheless heroically pursued theme of a more inclusive more democratic fairer more just notwithstanding the 1% and the 99% that it could be argued as part of our strength. the fact that that we're having that argument and then sometimes inevitably it gets noisy and it gets crude.

and and we lose our way you've been in the classroom and you've taught college kids. something i wasn't very good at by the way, i think god do you know? yeah, i think. you know. you know when you've written a good paragraph? you know when you've delivered good speech. and you know when you've done something that you were not. it's not an unqualified. it's just there are you know, there are other things and now i mean, i will say the nicest thing and it happens from time to time. you know is when people come up to you and say, you know, i was in your class and it's almost on it. that's wonderful. and what i said wasn't very good at it. i think i was out of sympathy.

with the evolving maybe nature of the classroom i'm i don't expect. to have 30 people who is passionately interested in the subject as i am or i was you know. but i wasn't very good. at adapting to a culture in which maybe a handful of those 30 people. were there because they really wanted to be there? all right. let's take somebody that really wanted to be there and they wanted they want to do history. they they want to become a historian. they want to become maybe a presidential historian. he's right by the worst person to ask for advice. no, but no. when i'm asking you though is

what would you tell how would you tell to go about? educating themselves about the subject matter and how did you do it? what kind of techniques did you use over the years to fill your help? i was never conscious certainly technique is not i mean excuse the expression no, no, but i mean i i had so what you say, but but it suggests. a conscious pursuit but what did you do? how did you absorb all this information? you see? to me it was just an interest that was always there. and indeed didn't even i didn't even think of as for example a career in embryo. i mean i never i literally gave no thought. to what i'd be doing. in 10 years or 20 years or 30 years, i gave no thought to.

you know first all right speeches and then i run presidential libraries and then i write books i mean you know, i don't so i'm i'm in some ways. the worst person to ask sort of career advice for i'm not even really even asking about curb is as much as are there series of books for instance? yeah, you know that you've read that you say, you know, this this stuff. this is valuable stuff. yeah, i would just say say i mean generally yeah, um look, it's it's a cliche. but it for for universal reasons if there's if there's something a subject. that you're really interested in. i don't get what it is. say with me of presidents now as a subset of a larger in but i mean it was through them. i think probably that i that i

broadened my interests obviously presidents existed a context and that context is called history. so and then as you connect the dots. you find yourself. throwing out a wider net. so you're into actual interest and and hopefully fields of expertise evolve and grow but equally important become. more nuanced and and sophisticated but that literally can grow out of a childhood. the lack of a better word preoccupation. i mean i read books about presidents at a and an obscenely early age. and enjoyed it and it was a simple as that it was. you know, i mean i watching omnibus, i mean there there was

something that i never i've never traced it to its origins. i don't know where the seed was planted. all i know is that pretty much. from the first sort of conscious you know memories. i was interested in the larger world. in news for lack of a better word for the which i came to understand pretty quickly was history in the making. do you have a favorite news source today? well, i'm a pbs fan and i'm an msnbc viewer, which will give away my political bias but people think you're a republican conservative historian, but see that that goes to the whole in some ways that actually is a is

a very good very fundamental. explanation of why you should be weary of what people think? or i mean, you know why you should be willing to rethink. what you think you know? historians. i taught that as a rule which is why we have revisionist history and on balance i'd say it's a good thing we do. well people don't remember eisenhower. reagan lincoln dull, oh sure. well, yeah, they look at the institutions, but see if you worked but but that is that is i would argue. i understand but that's also partly. a reflection of the media culture which sort of short

circuits thought i mean and assumes it takes her graded. if you're involved with these institutions. then ipso facto. you're a republican or a particular kind of republican or whatever and then it's it's people loading on to you people projecting on to you. their assumptions which of course is the absolute? inverse of what historians and biographers and indeed i would imagine any kind of scholar. does it certainly in a nutshell the kind of approach i guess i've taken to the books i've written for example, which is all about. undoing peeling away. what we think we know.

about a historical figure the little man on the wedding cake turns out to be a much more complex and interesting and i would argue admirable. figure in argue, maybe the best president. we never had what will when you finish your book on gerald ford. and when will that be out by the way? we're hoping 2020 but when you finish that book, what do you think? we will conclude about gerald ford's politics where he fits on the spectrum, you know, i hesitate to predict only because people are unpredictable. i do believe i think people will be surprised. that for much of his career in the house. forward actually was something of an insurgent. he was not the kind of amiable. party wheel horse you know that he was seen as want to became minority leader. um he was elected as an

insurgent who took on? and isolationist incumbent republican beat him in the primary. with the support of organized labor in his first term he signed a petition for world government. world federalism, i mean not the sort of thing you associate with good old jerry, you know. and of course and and that's what that's the best part of for me it isn't that i'm trying to prove it agenda. it is that i am. pleasantly surprised and you know to find that the real gerald ford. turns out to be frankly much more interesting. much less predictable figure then i think is generally believed and even that i to some degree believe it.

i thought i knew him pretty i i it's interesting. a friend good friend who's reading the manuscript? says his experience is every chapter he reads. he said i thought i knew him well. and i didn't know. nearly as well as i thought. and that's been for me. in many ways the overwhelming. i'm halfway through the manuscript i've written 400 pages. and every chapter contains something and it's not like i'm specifically, you know going after this or trying to manufacture. this is not a theme that i set out for and it you know, and who knows what happens the second half, but but certainly the notion of is a surprising. figure who i would argue in his early days was in many ways that

insurgent. and then it is and as as opposed president. with no more in effect political obligations in some ways he reverted. to that he said once he said, you know, i keep reading that i'm applauder. you know that i in effect was just a party man and that i think the whole business about physical clumsiness i i think he laughed that off. he said having been a quarterback. i mean having been in athletics and then a coach at yale was actually very good preparation for dealing with the with the monday morning quarterbacks of politics and to some degree history that i don't think bothered it. i think what bothered him. i think he was concerned that he would he would be remembered as just, you know a party hack.

a guy who just who's interest was no larger than or sympathies were no broader than and in fact is if you're starting in his later years, you know, he and i think mrs. ford was a factor, you know, but you remember they were before you know before they died they were sort of marooned in the modern republican party. they were pro-choice. you know, they were both more liberal. than they had been. and i think some of that was in reacted to where they saw the the party going. um the you know, i mean any biographer i don't care what the subject i'm sure every biographer is in some ways delighted when he discovers that he was right that turns out in his choice of subject because this is really more interesting, you know, more unpredictable more whatever then he thought in

the abstract. we have learned that you don't drive and it never have driven. no. oh, what's the reason? i'd be petrified i suppose is the ultimate reason. i would be dead within a week and i no doubt would take innocent bystanders with me. it's a good thing. i'm not on the road. i'd be how do you get around it? god gave me two legs. and and i've managed to you know. or or dragoon friends and you know, and there's something called mass transit. which works remarkably well most of the time i mean one consequences i've tended. not always vitamins. i'm more of a city person. but you know i've lived in 28 places i moved 28 times since college and i lived in west branch, iowa l 1800 people and

abilene kansas, which is not a whole lot bigger and and thrived where else well the simi valley california with the reagan springfield, illinois was the lincoln library lawrence. kansas was a door institute grand rapids, which is home now, but you know, boston. for for many years and i still sort of have an attachment. to boston the dc area i mean, i i experienced and i think in some ways i've never really thought about it, but i think it has to. be helpful. if you're writing about politics. and leadership over, you know a long period of time. and i really covered the gamut. in terms of the range of

american history it helps to have. lived in different regions to appreciate different cultures and and if only to to understand a little bit better some of the factors that may influence, i mean general ford was a quintessential midwesterner and in some ways he took a he paid a price, you know, there are people who look on midwesterners. well, they they talk slow. so it's assumed they think so. or the square you know or somehow culturally deprived i mean the main main street is a brilliant satire, but as a but is a, you know complete. exaggeration of the small you know air was mindless. midwestern berg tell us you're an introvert instead of an

extrovert. how much of your time do you spend alone? most there's a wonderful line from thoreau. i might put it on my tombstone it said. i never found a companion. so companionable as solitude. now i hesitate i don't want that deciding statistical it isn't that i think my company is better than anyone else's far from it. hoover said that in the end accomplishment is all that counts. and my experience is at least the accomplishment that i am capable of. which is basically putting words to paper. is is something accomplished? in solitude told us what you watch on television. what are your other outside interests?

i have so many as i do know, i'm a hurricane freak. have tracked every storm since i was six. in 1985. i got to fly into hurricane kate on an air force reconnaissance plane, which was a memorable experience. um, that gives me something from june to november. wife takes on an extra meaning and i say that. it without in any way sanctioning the horror of these storms um, it's interesting there are lots of if you notice there are lots of storm watchers and storm chasers plus tv see tv room again tv ruins like so many other things i said it distorts everything. have you noticed how tv particularly cable has discovered hurricanes in recent years and and it's the form, you know, you could write the script, you know, it's it's the

feigned concern on the looks of you know anchors as the as the the cataclysmic disaster approaches and then the bear we concealed disappointment when the storm veers out to sea and and we're denied the pictures of mass catastrophe. i mean see at least i'm up front and i'm telling you storms have an almost mystical. because i religious appeal to to me. it's seeing the face of god. category 5 hurricane which is a terrible thing. but it's also, you know a reminder. to mankind that we are not masters. of our universe and that there are a lot of forces out there. that we don't understand and that we would do very well to to recognize as such so anyway

hurricanes. oscar night, you know for years and oscar night party. although those are rare hollywood doesn't make that kind of movies anymore. so, you know great big costume dramas with english kings. i used to drag my mother. we remember a man for all seasons. that was my birthday present for my 13th birthday. she said are we going to see another old english movie that said you'll like it you like it and you know, she suffered through it it didn't, you know do any harm she liked gandhi, you know and nicholas and alexandra, but when's the last time you know, you tell me hollywood doesn't make those movies anymore. so so i am a great fan. i'm turner classic movies. i probably spend more time in front of tcm than any any other

outlet on the tube. broadway broadway yes. i'm i'm afraid i'm that cliche the you know. what impact is broadway have even it's mostly in new york and a lot of these shows travel now. yeah, but what impact does that have on our culture? it has vastly west that used to. in the 40s and the 50s in the gory days of rogers and hammerstein. it was the hip rate. you know the latest hit songs were on broadway. the tonight show the original incarnation of the tonight show the america after dark grew out of broadway after dark i mean television of course was so new york centric. and the days of winchell and dorothy killed gallon and ed sullivan before he was on tv news people exactly who are

those people they were one day once everyone know who they were everyone knew they were and that's how important broadway was and broadway journalism what you know, liz smith died not long ago at 94, you know, i don't know if there's any and she wasn't really a broadway i mean, but you know, do you think kill gallon do dorothy killed gallon was again? what would you remember there was a time when new york in our memory had eight or nine daily newspapers. each with a distinct profile and a distinct constituency and each covering broadway. which you know again in the 30s and the 40 we talk about the golden age of hollywood much of the golden age of hollywood. was made possible because broadway talent migrated to the west coast. i mean the gershwins and and cole porter and you know on and

on so, um part of me. i i must admit. wives in the past musically i think music died well, and of course, thank god the bridge. from cole porter who left us in 1964 to the president is stephen sondheim. i am among the more passionate. as you know, because i don't think we share a similar passion, but i'm among the more uncritical. of observers of sondheim's work, you know. i mean i can sing the lyrics to every i mean, it's it's not something to boast about it's not particularly something. i necessarily want, you know in my obit but you asked what my passions were. and sondheim ranks near the top.

because he's intelligent. and honest and much more lyrical than he's given credit for and witty. it's a you know. a gone long gone passion when i was a kid. i would i prevailed on my long suffering parents to let me stay up late and watch jack park. and i thought jack purr was the acme. of sophistication because unlike more recent talk shows, which aren't talk shows. they basically plug. for you know the latest movie or you know. crappy video, you know, i mean once last last time you heard a conversation? what parted was and person you

know, i don't know. i'm doing this show. i have no particular talents. he didn't say he didn't dance what he did was. converse and he brought out and he had this wonderful repertoire company. of people, you know who became old friends oscar levant. i mean, no one knows who all school event was but look at the old, you know, the old kennescopes of oscar event, or you know, there were i mean jonathan winters you know, where is people before there was robin williams. there was jonathan winters. and they had no other outlet. jackpot discovered bill cosby i mean a black comic, you know in the late 1950s godfrey cambridge. who was hilarious but it was very much out of the sort of conventional mold and the other thing with part did was remember our interviewed fidel castro. part took his shoulder on the

road. he per had a real interest in public affairs. and that spilled over so in the recognition. would go on the show and play the piano. well, you know you saw a side of richard dixon that you wouldn't see anywhere else bobby kennedy's first public appearance. on tv after the death of his brother was on the part show. and those eight the partial was, you know the place to be and so in some ways it was it was inseparable from this interest we talked about in kind of the the larger world and events going on and the news but but i watched par. that later on you know, he left he left in 1962. and television's never been the same. and he came back briefly in 1970. three and i wrote to him and we

struck up our well, his daughter went to harvard. and that was what we had in common. so we you know, i would write back everything cards and someone. and you know when you're young you do crazy things so when it was announced i saw every every so that year i never missed. you know five nights a week. and and he might have been known in october the ratings were not great. you know and you know what? it's it's it's very difficult. for people in television to come back i mean, it's very difficult. people they move on people have very short memories. and you could be a sensation. you know and a few years later. you know. who's that? anyway, it's just and you don't take it personally. it's just that's the way it is. okay and parks for instead.

because he hadn't changed and i was glad he wasn't changed but everyone else everything else had changed. so anyway, so he announced in october these leaving. so i said i gotta be that gonna be there so i got tickets for the last show. now, you know, i'm a college kid. i have no money at all getting to new york. it's a big deal. so, i mean i got to new york got to the studio. but in the meantime. it was very odd. i wrote to him. the latest of these exchanges and you know i was a collector even that i collected autographs i collected so i thought you know what? i've got to have a chair from from jack bars set. you know, what a wonderful memento, you know, it will be of this man who means so much to me. and of course, i didn't stop to think how that would look, you know, so i wrote him this very earnest. you know the latest in a succession of fanwaters. and he mentioned me on the show the next time he was on said oh,

yeah. i heard this kid married blah blah we have writing everything else and he was talking about the news the reaction. to the news that he was going off the air and he used me as the example. he said yeah, he writes me a letter said can i have your furniture? and it was my you know, my 15 not even 15 seconds of fame. but anyway, i went for the last show and it was a very emotional emotional experience and i'm afraid that's the last time we had any contact but because per part was an unusual figure. i mean he he he was very ambivalent about. fame and all the everything that television notoriety brought with it. i mean he he was someone who i think was very happy. he bought a radio station in maine and he went off and travel he had a great interest in africa. he traveled the world, but he didn't miss television. you know in the least he was

someone who was utterly capable of sustaining himself. for the rest of his wife through a range of of interests, and that's not a bad way to live. did you get piece of furniture? i didn't i just got the story. and the and and a series of of cards are written in inject prize and so we talk about your introverted life, but all you're outside interests. if you had 24 hours. to do anything go anywhere or do anything see anything? what would you do? what would be your first choice? oh, i know. well it would it would presuppose. several impossibilities, but if you're saying you you can in

fact do anything you want. um anything yeah. it would be. to have a dinner with the queen and bucket ballots or yeah, i mean, i'm not picky. i'll go i'll go to windsor. but yeah, i think that would be be that would be my the the top of my what would you ask her? see my the problem with me is i take the historical approach. i'd ask her about her. i'd ask about her grandmother. queen mary. whom she increasingly resembles i mean, i'd ask her about yeah. i'd ask about past members of the royal family. i i got i went to london for the for the golden jubilee the 50th

anniversary and had about a million people pressing me up against the the fence at the palace, but it was it was it was what was required i was going to stand there for several hours pressed against the fence to see an up close view of her majesty following a concert that evening they came out into the into the courtyard before the in front of the palace, which was probably she was a hundred feet away and they got any card and drove off to windsor. so, you know, i at least while a million people were singing god save the queen that was a that was a better it was better than going to times square to see some ball drop, you know on the on the old times tower that was a memorable experience. you know, i'd like to visit with the pope.

you see this from crank theme of of authority figures inaccessible authority figures, but but at least you know, not he will take questions from

members of the house agriculture committee. this is live coverage on c-span3.