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.

As a reminder, I am the director of this department with clear and complete authority to manage it as I see fit. Therefore:

From Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal (written before the health care bill was pulled off the House agenda): “Less than three months into full control of government and the chance to reshape the American system for a generation, Republicans are doing something no one thought possible: They are reinventing the circular firing squad.

“Maybe in politics, genes really are destiny. Under pressure from a CBO ‘score,’ the genetic disposition of Republican politicians is to go wobbly. The disposition of movement conservatives is to get out the long knives and start carving up other conservatives.

“The result will be guaranteed political defeat for years if congressional Republicans choke at the chance to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

“The Beltway bubble has never looked so big or real as now, to wit: The Trump-Ryan-Price health-care reform bill is too tough on Medicaid. Or it isn’t tough enough. It will break the Trump entitlement bond with the middle class. We want the 2015 repeal-only bill. Let ObamaCare collapse. What’s the rush? We can do this reform some other time.

“If this bill fails, there is only one Plan B. It will be a single-payer system enacted after 2020 with votes from what’s left of the Republican party after—Donald Trump is right about this—they get wiped out in 2018 and lose the presidency two years later. After blowing it on ObamaCare, why would anyone vote for them again?”

From The Wall Street Journal on confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch in response to advocacy by Democrat leaders that Gorsuch should have to announce how would vote on key Supreme Court issues: “Mr. Leahy (Senator Pat Leahy) told nominee Ginsburg at the time that he ‘certainly’ did not want her ‘to have to lay out a test here in the abstract which might determine what your vote or your test would be in a case you have yet to see that may well come before the Supreme Court.’

“Further, at the 1967 hearings for Thurgood Marshall, then Senator Edward Kennedy called it a ‘sound legal precedent’ that ‘any nominee to the Supreme Court would have to defer any comments on any matters which are either before the court or very likely to appear before the court.’”

Now, Senate Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer is saying he will vote no on Gorsuch because he is too conservative and also is saying the Ds will filibuster the nomination.

Senator Orrin Hatch on the D position on Gorsuch: “What sort of civics lesson were the American people treated to last week? Judge Gorsuch’s performance was outstanding. Enduring more than 20 hours of questioning over two days, he displayed an impressive command of the law and an intellect befitting someone with his stellar credentials.

“He showed that he understands the proper role of a judge in our system: to apply, not make, the law. Throughout, his demeanor was serious, thoughtful and humble. These qualities have defined his judicial service for the past decade and will serve him well on the Supreme Court.

“In stark contrast was the astonishing treatment Judge Gorsuch received from many of my Democratic colleagues. Whatever their motivation—be it the outcome of President Obama’s lame-duck nomination during last year’s election, an unwillingness to accept the November results, or the desire for judges to push a liberal political agenda—they have apparently decided to wage a desperate, scorched-earth campaign to derail this nomination, no matter the damage they inflict along the way. We are now watching the confirmation process through the funhouse mirror.

From Wall Street Journal editorial writers (who wrote this before the health care bill was pulled from the process): “The biggest gamble in the House health-care bill is whether it includes enough reform to arrest the current death spiral in the individual insurance market. No one knows for sure, but critics are overlooking important provisions that will help people who are now exposed to ObamaCare’s rapidly rising premiums.

“Notably, the bill includes a new 10-year $100 billion ‘stability fund’ that allows states to start to repair their individual insurance markets. Before ObamaCare, it wasn’t inevitable that costs would increase by 25% on average this year, or that nearly a third of U.S. counties would become single-insurer monopolies. With better policy choices, states can make coverage cheaper and more attractive for consumers and coax insurers back into the market, and the stability fund is a powerful tool.”

From hill.com: “Jim Dyer, who served for 13 years as the Republican staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, says it will be tough to find tens of billions of dollars for President Trump’s proposed defense increase from other programs.

“If Mr. Mulvaney tries to get $54 billion out of nondefense cuts, he will have to tread softly,” Dyer said of popular programs on the nondefense side of the budget. “There are veterans’ benefits  — you don’t want to touch that. There’s funding for the wall and homeland security. There’s money for cancer research that everyone supports.”

“He predicted that Congress will largely ignore Trump’s budget and do what it wants.”

From the New York Times: “Once again, Mr. Trump’s agenda was subsumed by problems of his own making, his message undercut by a seemingly endless stream of controversy he cannot seem to stop himself from feeding.

“The health care measure appears on track for a House vote this week, and the president, who planned a weekend of relaxation at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Fla., club, is likely to receive a large measure of the credit. But it has also become clear that Mr. Trump, an agitator incapable of responding proportionately to any slight, appears hell-bent on squandering his honeymoon.”

From Ari Fleisher, press secretary for George W. Bush: “It’s a pattern with him — he sometimes counterpunches so hard he hits himself.”

Fleischer’s comment is a good way to end this post because it describes very well a president who jeopardizes his own ends.