Never pick a fight...buys ink by the barrel; Politics is the art of the possible

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 18 May 2005 10:00:06 -0400, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
wrote:

>On Wed, 18 May 2005, Baker, John wrote:
>
>> "And he taught me never to argue with a man who buys his ink by
>> the barrel."
>
>Even better!  This 1980 example may knock out the William Greider theory.

You mean William Greener, I take it?  Here's an attribution to him from 1978:

-----
"Politics and People: Final Rules" by Alan L. Otten
_Wall Street Journal_, Sep 28, 1978, p. 22, col. 3
William Greener, press aide to former-President Ford and several Cabinet
officers, would cite Bill Greener's Law in his frequent efforts to
persuade high-ranking officials not to respond publicly to hostile news
stories or editorials; the law warns, "Never argue with a man who buys ink
by the barrel."
-----


--Ben Zimmer