Welcome to the commentary magazine podcast today is Thursday May 2nd 2019.

I am John Pauldhord, the editor of commentary the 70-odd year old monthly of intellectual analysis, political,

property and cultural criticism from a conservative perspective. We invite you to join us at

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In your mailbox 11 times a year with me as always, senior editor Abe Greenwald. Hi Abe.

Hi John. So see you at editor Noah Rothman. Hi Noah.

Hi John. And senior writer Christine Rosen. Hi Christine.

Hi John. We are once again doing this through Skype. I'm in Los Angeles,

Christine in Washington, Abe and Noah in New York and our friend Scott Immergut from Ricochet

is producing for us today. So I think as we speak the House Judiciary Committee is holding a

hearing without Attorney General Bill Barr. And apparently if what I read is correct,

they have brought a chicken in a cage either into the room or in proximity to the room to make

the point that Bill Barr is a chicken for not appearing today at this House hearing, which he

nominally has said he is refusing to appear before because the members of the House,

Jerry Nadler, the chairman specifically want him to be interrogated basically by

staffers and not by House members. And Barr has said that he considers this

an unconstitutional request as the oversight of his role as Attorney General

belongs to elected members of Congress and not to their staff. So we can go into that question

at great detail. But I will say that the presence of the chicken either in or in proximity to

the hearing would suggest that Barr's decision to stay away from the hearing has that the ability

to criticize Barr's decision to step away from the hearing or to refuse to show up at the hearing has

...