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 Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, one of two which I direct (the other is the Department of Pet Peeves), is open again.

This has to be the case because there has been a lot of good material lately, especially in the Wall Street Journal, my favorite newspaper these days.

As director, I have full and complete authority to decide which quotes are worth remembering. There is no advisory committee. There is no second-in-command, with partial authority. There is only me.

So, here goes.

From Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan: “One reason (that Trump may follow Sarah Palin into oblivion) is that there is no hard constituency in America for political incompetence, and that is what he continues to demonstrate. The first sign of political competence is knowing where you stand with the people. He proceeds each day with the confidence of one who thinks his foundation firm when it’s not—it’s shaky. His job is to build support, win people over through persuasion, and score some legislative victories that will encourage a public sense that he is competent, even talented.

“The story of this presidency so far is his inability to do this. He thwarts himself daily with his dramas. In the thwarting he does something unusual: He gives his own supporters no cover. They back him at some personal cost, in workplace conversations and at family gatherings. They are in a hard position. He leaves them exposed by indulging whatever desire seizes him—to lash out, to insult, to say bizarre things. If he acted in a peaceful and constructive way, he would give his people cover.”

Comment: Noonan accurately skewers Trump with this quote: “There is no hard constituency in America for political incompetence.” Good point.

From the Wall Street Journal editorial page:  “Hyperventilating is the modern political default, starting with the President of the United States. But the political flap over the Senate’s ‘blue slip’ courtesy for judicial nominees is even phonier than usual.  The tradition—it isn’t a formal rule—has allowed a home-state senator of either party to signal opposition to a lower-court nominee by refusing to return a sheet of paper known as the blue slip. The tradition was intended to give Senators a chance to flag a particular problem with a nominee that others might not know about, but it was never intended as an ideological pocket veto.”

Comment: The first sentence is what caught my eye here – “hyperventilating is the modern political default.” Of course, the president is the first culprit. All he does is hyperventilate without any apparent plan to solve any of the nation’s problems. But I also thought of New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democrat leader in the Senate. He also is chronic hyperventilator.

From a piece by Karl Rove in the WSJ under the headline, “Trump, Corker and the Circular Firing Squad:”  “The feud started more than a week ago , when Senator Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) told a reporter that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly are ‘people that help separate our country from chaos.’

“What good did that do?

“The Tennessee senator was correct when he added that these men ‘work very well together to make sure the policies we put forth around the world are sound and coherent.’ But his first remark made them look bigger and saner than Donald Trump. The president hates that: Advisers who are portrayed that way tend to lose influence and, sometimes, their jobs.

“Mr. Trump responded, unsurprisingly, with a Twitter assault. ‘Bob Corker ‘begged’ me to endorse him for re-election,’ the president wrote. ‘I said ‘NO’ and he dropped out.’ Mr. Trump also said he expected Mr. Corker to ‘stand in the way of our great agenda,’ and that the senator ‘didn’t have the guts to run!’

“What good came from this?”

Comment: The answer, of course, is nothing. While I could applaud Corker for saying what many other colleagues thought – not to mention what I thought — his point only prompted a tirade, call it hyperventilating, from Trump. Nobody won anything.

Again, from Peggy Noonan in the WSJ:  “In early March I met with a dozen Republican U.S. senators for coffee as part of a series in which they invite writers, columnists and historians to share what’s on their mind. The consuming topic was the new president. I wrote some notes on the train down, seized by what I felt was the central challenge Republicans on Capitol Hill were facing. The meeting was off the record, but I think I can share what I said. I said the terrible irony of the 2016 campaign was that Donald Trump was the only one of the 17 GOP primary candidates who could have gone on to win the presidency. Only he had the uniqueness, the outside-the-box-ness to win. At the same time Mr. Trump was probably the only one of the 17 who would not be able to govern, for reasons of temperament, political inexperience and essential nature. It just wouldn’t work. The challenge for Republicans was to make legislative progress within that context.”

Comment: Trump gives supporters and those who should be his allies in Congress no support – or room to hide. He cashes in all his potential support and for what? Just his latest tweet tirade.