PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

The recent furor over a Seattle judge’s decision to stall President Donald Trump’s immigration order called to mind a different incident for me more than 40 years ago.

Actually, the specific recollection wasn’t in relation to the judge’s ruling, but rather to Trump’s comments about it.

When I was part of the administration of the late Governor Vic Atiyeh in Oregon, he held weekly Cabinet meetings with key agency heads. At one point, Victor – as we sometimes called the governor back then, with his approval — railed against a decision by a judge to allow a challenge to Oregon’s prison system to go forward.

That decision, incredibly as I look back on it, was filed by a prisoner rights organization and contended that double-bunking, required because of prison over-crowding, represented “cruel and unusual punishment.”

A judge had allowed the suit to proceed and, in response, the governor said the judge’s decision was “preposterous.” I still member the normally understated governor uttering that word.

His choice got the attention of one of the agency heads in the meeting, Acting Attorney General Jim Brown, a close friend of mine. By the look on Jim’s face, I knew he was very wary of the word “preposterous” in calling attention to the judge’s ruling. Brown said the very word, if it leaked as a quote from the governor, could irritate the judge to the extent that it could influence his ruling.

The good news? The comment didn’t leak, though, if it did, Victor would not have minded in the least, for he, in fact, did feel that the ruling was “preposterous.” So would many law-abiding Oregonians.

Back to the case at hand – Trump’s comments about the judge who stalled the president’s immigration order.

In fairly typical fashion, Trump torpedoed the judge, calling him “a so-called judge” and contending that, if there was a terrorist attack while the executive order was stalled, the judiciary should be blamed for it. [I suppose now the Night Circuit Court of Appeals should also share the blame because it unanimously upheld the Seattle’s judge’s ruling.]

Wall Street Journal editorial writers commented this way: “Mr. Trump’s rants against the judiciary are offensive to the rule of law, and perhaps also to his own case.”

Further, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN that “I think it’s best not to single out judges for criticism.’’

Trump’s comments about the Seattle judge aren’t the first time he has publicly attacked a sitting member of the bench. During the presidential campaign, he criticized a judge overseeing civil fraud lawsuits against Trump University, claiming Judge Gonzalo Curiel had “an absolute conflict’’ in presiding over the litigation because he was of Mexican heritage. The judge was born in the U.S.

Comparing Trump and Atiyeh may be ill-conceived on a number of accounts. In this case, there is at least one key difference. Atiyeh’s use of the word “preposterous” was said in the confines of a private Cabinet meeting. Trump’s derogatory comments were made using his favorite medium, Twitter, for all the world to see.

So, Atiyeh and Trump? If there was a public vote, I would cast mine for Atiyeh, one of Oregon’s great governors, every time!