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.

Legislating is tough business.

So is developing compromise.

That is what is happening in Washington, D.C this week as House Republicans work to pass a replacement for the flawed ObamaCare health care program passed only by former President Barack Obama and his Democrat colleagues several years ago.

ObamaCare was imposed from above and many of those Democrats who voted for it had not even read its 2,000 pages.

Kimberley Strassel in the Wall Street Journal described the situation very well, as follows:

“With a hat-tip to Mark Twain, reports of the death of the Republican health-care bill have been greatly, vastly, even bigly exaggerated. What we are witnessing isn’t a legislative demise, but the rebirth of a long-lost Washington concept: politics.

“From the moment Speaker Paul Ryan unveiled his ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill, the media have declared it a doomed project. The newspapers have run out of synonyms for division, disunity, discord, conflict, struggle, mess. Since the only thing the media enjoy more than bashing Republicans is helping Republicans bash each other, the cable stations have offered a nonstop loop of a handful of GOP naysayers and grandstanders (cue Rand Paul) who wish the bill ill.

“Perhaps the talking heads can be excused for their dim outlook. The Obama administration marked one of the more dysfunctional and destructive periods in Washington—eight years of threats, executive rule, non-communication and opposition politics. So it is undoubtedly confusing for some people suddenly to watch an honest-to-goodness legislative process, with all its negotiating, horse-trading and consensus-building.

“Under prior management, Nancy Pelosi did her thing, Harry Reid did his thing, President Obama did his thing, and the three tried not to talk if at all possible. The Obama legislative affairs team couldn’t have found Capitol Hill with a map.”

If you have ever seen sausage made – I have – it is not a pretty sight. Neither is legislating.

What’s at stake this time around is the credibility of Republican leaders in Congress as they work to express a majority in both chambers that they have wanted for several years.

If they succeed, they’ll have better prospects for remaining elements of their conservative agenda, including tax reform.

If they fail, the only solution is a government-run, government-financed single payer system that, frankly, none of us can afford. We are already a few steps down that pathway with a system of government health care benefits under ObamaCare. Getting rid of government largesse is a tough business because someone always loses.

As I write this, the outcome is not clear. But, the Wall Street Journal conveyed the seriousness very well: “House passage would provide the double dividend that any useful reform pays: Credit for promises kept, and then credit from voters who benefit from solutions to problems they confront personally, such as being rescued from ObamaCare’s cycle of rising premiums and declining choices.”