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.

I run this department and, as I have said before, I have full and complete authority to do so, including to decide on what to print and what to leave out.

Also, as I write this, I am sitting in La Quinta, California, where the temperature reached 115 degrees yesterday. Likely more of the same today. So, why am I here? I am asking myself that same question.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: “One of the major failures of Obamacare was that it was rammed through Congress by Democrats on a strict-party line basis without a single Republican vote. We should not make the mistakes of the past.”

COMMENT: That quote came from Senator John McCain after he cast what could be one of the most important votes of his tenure in Congress – a vote to oppose even the so-called “skinny repeal” of ObamaCare. His was the vote that mattered because it meant that Vice President Mike Pence was not able to cast the tie-breaking vote. It also meant that a Republican pledge – to get rid of ObamaCare – ended up on the shoals.

NEW YORK TIMES: “Senator John McCain is less the lion of the Senate than its wildcat, veering through the decades from war hero to Republican presidential nominee to irascible foil for an unlikely president.  On Tuesday, Mr. McCain ambled gingerly into the Capitol to sustained applause less than two weeks after brain surgery, casting a vote to aid President Trump, who has served as more tormentor than ally.

“But moments later in a speech on the Senate floor, Mr. McCain turned what had been an uplifting moment for his Republican colleagues — whom he saved from an embarrassing failure on the floor — into an ominous cloud for any health care legislation.  He said that, although he had voted to begin debate on repealing the Affordable Care Act, he would definitely not vote for a Senate health care bill without major changes.”

COMMENT: That’s exactly what McCain did – voted to schedule the vote, but then oppose ObamaCare. Was it a profile in courage or a repudiation of the Republican party? Only time will tell.

WALL STREET JOURNAL:  “The larger stakes in the ObamaCare fight are whether Republicans can be a governing party. They can win elections, but, not since the early 2000s, have they showed they can pass a major reform through Congress. They blew it the last time they controlled both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in 2005-2006. They’ve already wasted six months on health care in this Congress with nothing to show but division and discord.”

COMMENT: There always is a tendency to make vast pronouncements after a defeat – vast pronouncements as in “Republicans” cannot govern. But it usually takes more time for reflection before the full effect can become known. Now, a key test for Republicans will be whether they can pass tax reform.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: “The president’s primary problem as a leader is not that he is impetuous, brash or naive. It’s not that he is inexperienced, crude, an outsider. It is that he is weak and sniveling. It is that he undermines himself almost daily by ignoring traditional norms and forms of American masculinity.

“He’s not strong and self-controlled, not cool and tough, not low-key and determined; he’s whiny, weepy and self-pitying. He throws himself, sobbing, on the body politic. He’s a drama queen.”

COMMENT: Again one of my favorite columnists, Peggy Noonan, effectively skewers Donald Trump, whom I hate to call President Trump. He is a self-centered, sniveling, egotist. Everything always revolves him.

It will be interesting to see if he actually gives his new chief of staff, John Kelly, the authority he needs to bring a bit of order to the chaos-driven White House. The early report, after the first day, was that Kelly illustrated he was in charge by getting rid of Anthony Scaramucci. Good riddance. Good for Kelly. We’ll see if “the general” can demand that others in the White House follow his orders and, thus, gain traction for the Trump agenda…whatever that is. The key test for Kelly is whether Trump himself will give him the authority to operate, thus bringing order out of chaos.