“An Editor Told Me Never to Give Anyone a Homeric Epithet”

Writing about William Barr and Donald Trump, Maureen Dowd couldn’t resist. From her June 2 column, “Lowering the Barr,” in the New York Times:

Barr came into the job, Crawford said, with a good reputation on the right and the left and now he stands “accused of protecting the president, enabling the president, lying to Congress.”

In Homer’s epic poems, reputation is more exalted than life itself. But in Donald Trump’s epic reign as the hotheaded, ammonia-haired, serpent-tongued destroyer of worlds, political survival is paramount, no matter the venality involved or the cost to your reputation.