When US Attorney-general Barr threw out Special Counsel Mueller’s summary and gave the American people his own chlorinated version of the Mueller Report he showed himself an Eli.

Don’t know Eli? Meet him here in this interaction with Samuel, his youthful successor as judge and priest. If you utter an OMG you are in good shape.

And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever.

1 Samuel 3:11-14

What General Barr needs to do – restore the bar

He needs to deliver a stern rebuke to the GOP and Tea Party clans that makes it clear that (a) facts alone make America safe and (b) lies are abominable in every circumstance, not just in FBI interactions.

Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord’s people to transgress.

1 Samuel 2:24

Need more graphics? Here’s a blind and aged man in 1 Samuel 4:15.
Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were dim, that he could not see.

Here’s the overweight Eli in I 1 Samuel 4:18
And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.

Need more graphics? Here are two snapshots to remember: the capture of the ark by the Philistines and family reaction.

1 Samuel 4:19
And his daughter in law, Phinehas’ wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father in law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her.

The outcome of Eli’s slipping – the glory question

1 Samuel 4:21
And she named the child I–chabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband. ee kabôd means where is the glory?

Perhaps this woman felt that she had been robbed by the nepotism of the Eli family just as an entire nation feels robbed of its vital participation in the nation’s choice making without interference. There is so much crime following the crime busters that we have to conclude that the greatness has departed. If greatness has anything to do with officers and administrators of justice it had better not bar the people from the unvarnished – redacted is fine – truth.