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 the preamble to this blog notes, I was a lobbyist for nearly 40 years and, during that time, there were a number of sayings that caught my attention.

Call the sayings “lobby talk.”

And, even as OLD former lobbyist, I remember using them as if it was yesterday.

Why, you may ask, write about them now? Good question. For me, it’s just a way to reflect back on my past because, in retirement, I have time to do so between golf games.  But, it’s also true that the “lobby talk sayings” may relate to real life as much as they do to the craft I practiced for 40 years.

Here are a few of the sayings.

• The possible is held hostage in pursuit of the impossible perfect

This is the way to describe what still happens in elective government today. What’s possible is sacrificed – call the possible “compromise” – in pursuit of what cannot occur, which is the perfect.  I have watched this occur too many times, both in Congress and in the Oregon Legislature.

• What goes around comes around

The first time I heard the phrase was more than 30 years ago when it was uttered by Senator Mike Thorne, the Democrat from Pendleton who, then, was Senate co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee. [He later became my client when he served as executive director of the Port of Portland and I continue to have the utmost respect for him.]

The phrase was meant to indicate that politics is often a circular game. If you lose at one point, you might win later when the issue comes back around for re-consideration. So, the saying is actually a moral – don’t get mad over one loss so being made inhibits the ability to win later.

• It’s like the camel’s nose under the tent

This saying refers to the likelihood, in lobbying, that the first step toward passage of a piece of legislation could become a floor for further steps. I often argued against the camel.

• It’s the first step down a slippery slope

Similar to the saying above, this is meant, again, to indicate that one step toward approval of a bill could simply provide more chances for further steps. Again, I often used this phrase to argue against that first step.

• What are the legislative sideboards?

I had a client who often asked this good question. His interest suggested either of two things: (1) That there was a standard legislative process to work through, one that had boundaries, or (2) that there are understood ways of operating in the legislative process at the Capitol in Salem that might logically be known to lobbyists but not to citizens.

• All hat and no cattle

When I first heard this phrase at the Capitol, I couldn’t stop laughing. It says so much in only a few words. When I heard it, it was used to illustrate that someone who had introduced a bill had no idea about what that bill would do, but introduced it only for its supposed, superficial political benefit. So, “all hat and no cattle.” Right!

How important are these old sayings? Well, not very. But, on occasion, they do constitute more than just lobby talk; by extension, they illustrate something about life in general.

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A footnote: This may be a good blog to include a note on the unexpected passing of lobby colleague of mine for more than 30 years, Mike Dewey. After working for and then taking over a lobby from his parents, Mike served with distinction as a lobbyist for more than 44 years. We were never in the same firm, but we often worked for and against each other, as professional lobbyists do. Both of us managed to reflect the “disagree, but do agreeably” mantra. His kids in Salem grew up with mine, so we had that family connection, as well. Comfort and solace to his wife, Kathie, and his children, Meagan and Matt, as well as all of the family.