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.

This, remember, is one of two departments I run with full and complete authority to do so.  [The other is the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering.]

No one tells me what to do in the Department of Pet Peeves and I remain free from any outside influence.

Therefore, here are my new pet peeves – and let me add that peeves I choose to include don’t have to involve significant issues for society…they must just arouse my instincts to cite them as peeves.

ON THE GOLF COURSE

One of the actions that always bugs me is when golfers ahead of me on the course fail to re-set the pin properly on the green. They leave it askew.

Which, of course, would affect me if I were to hit a hole-in-one — another one.

Too trifling to mention, you might say. Well, perhaps true, but remember that I am retired and don’t have much else to do other than to reflect on major peeves such as this.

ON THE TRAIL OF NEWS REPORTERS

As one who used to be a reporter for a daily newspaper, it bugs me when current reporters don’t seem to be interested in adding at least a little context to what they write or air.

They seem preoccupied with the controversy or the tension of the moment, forget the background or the landscape.

Not a new thought, I know, but one that continues to bug me, so I add it to this list of peeves.

ON THE TRAIL OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS WHO DON’T HONOR THEIR WORD

I have written separate blogs about this, titling them something like – The Perils of Cutting a Deal with Public Officials and Expecting It To Be Honored.

In my past as a state lobbyist, the best example of this double-dealing occurred with respect to the proposal to tax hospitals and health insurers, then use the proceeds as state matching funds for additional federal Medicaid dollars.

When we negotiated this deal with legislators and the governor the first time in 2003, we fully expected it to be honored until we sat down to re-negotiate the next deal.

But, no.

The deal only lasted for a few months until the legislature and the governor found a way to renege on it. OF course, they called this a new “emergency.”

That failure occurred repeatedly and only one legislator – Senator Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose – displayed the honesty to announce that those who negotiated the deal would have to go back on it.

Some will say that a deal with legislators and a governor cannot last forever, especially if new “emergencies” arise. True. But action by such honorable legislators as Senator Johnson represents the best approach. When a deal has to be changed, announce the action and take responsibility for the change.

I relay this pet peeve now because the legislators, meeting in the short session, have just approved a new deal on hospital and insurer taxes – which, of course, prompts me to ask how long the new deal will be honored.

ON HGTV

First, this will show that I do not only watch the Golf Channel – I watch HGTV, as well.

My question about the House Hunters and other similar shows is why so many buyers talk about “entertainment” when they list what they want in a new abode. If they entertained as much as they say they do, that’s about all they’d so. Not just live in a house, but entertain perpetually in it.

Just saying and wondering.

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.

It always has perplexed me that the “jobs issue” does not rank higher on political priority lists both Democrats and Republicans, especially Democrats.

Well, for some Republicans, jobs seem to matter. But, to hear Ds talk, they don’t even recognize that having a job is critical in this country and, as well, is a key answer to many of the social problems we face.

Consider this story that ran on Hill.com late this week.

“The U.S. economy added a robust 313,000 jobs in February, the fastest pace of growth since summer of 2016, as tax cuts stoked the tightening labor market.

“The unemployment rate was 4.1 percent for the fifth straight month, the lowest level since December 2000, when it was 3.9 percent, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

“February jobs, which ran well above estimates, posted the best performance since July 2016 and were up from 239,000 jobs in January.

“Job gains have averaged 242,000 over the last three months.

“The boost in jobs last month likely reflects a growing confidence among businesses that the tax cuts will help accelerate growth this year.”

My view is that those who want to be elected should run on jobs, either helping the private sector create them or taking credit for job and economic growth that stem from political actions.

Consider the recent tax reform action in Congress. It clearly has produced jobs in this country and is destined to produce even more.

The latest positive jobs growth comes amid President Trump’s plan to levy global steel and aluminum tariffs that congressional Republicans worry could upend the economic momentum from the tax package.

The Trade Partnership, a non-partisan pro-trade group, estimates that the tariffs will generate more than 33,000 new metals jobs, but ultimately lead to an overall loss of 146,000 jobs. So, based on job losses, the tariffs represent a step backward.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), an architect of the tax plan, credited the newly enacted law with bolstering the job market and economic growth. But he, like others, has expressed concern about the president’s tariff plan.

“Now is the time to build off the strong economic momentum of the president’s tax cuts through sound trade policy,” Brady said.

So, if the “jobs issue” is paramount – as I believe it is – political leaders should capitalize on the good news and commit to making further efforts to ease creation of even more jobs.

As I wrote earlier, having a job represents one answer to a series of social problems facing this country.  That was one motivation for us back when I served as deputy director in the Oregon Economic Development Department.  Helping the private sector create jobs was our number one priority, but we also knew that having a job was a key to living well and healthy.

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.

Here’s a pipe dream.

With a lot of time on my hands in retirement, a question crossed my mind this week.

It was this.

What would happen if we elected an official who spent time on the job making reasoned decisions about public policy without any focus on whether he or she would get elected again?

I imagine we would have better decisions. And, not just one such official, but a retinue of them.

I also hope – despite evidence to the contrary – that, as voters, we would see the value of an elected official who acted without regard to the next election and, then, vote that person into office again.

Too much to ask, you say.

Probably.

But, whether it’s this or some other reform, we need to see something different in politics today. And not just see something, but react positively ourselves when we observe a new way of doing the public’s business.

I also believe that, if we were to see elected officials who did not just focus on the next election, they would evidence one other very important trait. It would be always to ask this key question: Is there a role for government in this problem, and, if there is, what should it be?

Too often, that question is not asked because many act as if they believe that, if a problem exists, there always should be a role for government to address it.

Plus, when designing a new or expanded role for government, another key proposition should be gain more recognition. It is this: How will a decision by made on whether there has been a return on the government investment and, if not, then the new government program should not be continued.

One example of this kind of process occurred when, in 2011, legislators, at the request of my firm’s client, Youth Villages, passed Senate Bill 964. It was designed to fund model programs with proven track records to reduce Oregon’s intolerably high foster care caseload. And, for the first time in Oregon’s social service statutes, the phrase “performance based contracting” was included in Oregon law, which meant that competitors for state dollars would have to accountable for their performance, not just take the public dole.

This was a clear case of expecting a return on the investment of government dollars.

[Unfortunately, despite passage of the law, the Department of Human Services has tended to ignore it, which raises another question worthy of another blog – state laws that are on the books, but ignored by agencies, should be a focus of interest and investigation. At the moment, agencies suffer almost no consequences for failure to observe the law.]

As one voter – not to mention a retired lobbyist – I intend to support candidates who will run on a platform of getting the public’s business done without regard to the next election and in a way that takes maximum advantage of government money.

We’ll see if any such candidates emerge.

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.

For me, it has been an exercise in futility to figure out what motivates one of the strangest persons ever to occupy the Oval Office – Donald Trump.

He says one thing one day and then contradicts himself the next day, if not the next minute. One Democrat leader in the U.S, House said that negotiating with Trump was like “poking jello.”

Or, for Trump, fake news is anything with which he disagrees. And, he himself, appears to have no accuracy funnel through which he decides what to say. Who cares if what he says is accurate or, for that matter, makes sense? He doesn’t.

Commentators, almost all of whom are smarter than me, not to mention closer to the action, appear to have the same difficulty I do. Witness these assessments:

From Michael Gerson in the Washington Post: “But for all this, Trump seems utterly incapable of ruling even the 18-acre kingdom of the White House. Recent reports describe chaos, tumult, disarray and pure madness. With the policy process completely broken, staffers seem to occupy their time with blood feuds, leaking and legal consultations. Trump himself — brooding, isolated and angry, mad as hell — takes it out on Jeff Sessions and Alec Baldwin.

“The president’s self-generated governing crisis is disturbing. But when paired with authoritarian envy, it is pathetic. An exercise in autocratic jock-sniffing. Other would-be strongmen have turned to Karl Marx for inspiration; for Trump, it is more like the Marx Brothers. Absurdly stereotyped characters — Anthony Scaramucci, Sebastian Gorka, Stephen K. Bannon — pop randomly in and out of well-appointed rooms, while the main character feeds chaos all around him. It is the Duck Soup dictatorship.”

From Joseph Epstein in the Wall Street Journal: “The presidency, I can hear critics claiming, is not a charm contest. If President Trump is a boor, that may be regrettable, but better a boor with sound policies than a gentleman with unsound ones. True enough, yet this does not, as the philosophers say, exhaust all cases. A man likes to think that one day we may again have a president with both sound policies and dignified behavior.

“Such a combination is of course possible, but at present more than merely unlikely. Boors in their 70s do not change. Donald Trump is incorrigible. Not even John Kelly, a tough retired Marine Corps general, has been able to whip him into anything resembling presidential shape. With Trump, what we see is what we get, and what we get distinctly isn’t Cary Grant. And we have three more years, possibly seven, to live it.”

From Washington Post reporter Marc Fisher who was asked to be one of the reporters who, on occasion, wrote an opinion column: “A royal mess? Not in Trump’s version of reality. As yet another chief of staff twists in the wind, the president makes clear two essential points about how he governs:

“1) Always double down on your position. Through the most trying moments of the past two years, Trump has regularly argued in favor of men on his side who’ve been accused of bad behavior against women, whether that was Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama; Fox News figures Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly; last week’s case du jour, Rob Porter; or Trump himself. He weathered the “Access Hollywood” tape that many of his aides thought would sink his campaign, and he successfully batted away allegations from more than a dozen women that he was guilty of sexual misconduct toward them.

“2) The president must always be the focus of attention. Aides who get too big for their britches won’t be around for long.”

From Peter Baker in the New York Times: “Trump is the 45th president of the United States, but he has spent much of his first year in office defying the conventions and norms established by the previous 44, and transforming the presidency in ways that were once unimaginable.

“Under Mr. Trump, it has become a blunt instrument to advance personal, policy and political goals. He has revolutionized the way presidents deal with the world beyond 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, dispensing with the carefully modulated messaging of past chief executives in favor of no-holds-barred, crystal-breaking, us-against-them, damn-the-consequences blasts borne out of gut and grievance.”

So, I say what we have in the Oval Office is just another “reality show,” led by the host of the show, one Donald Trump.

Michael Gerson, the Post writer mentioned above, put it well in the conclusion to one of his most recent columns: “Though weakness and incompetence are preferable to authoritarianism, they are unequal to the real challenges of the nation.”

We need an enlightened leader in the Oval Office. One who responds to issues and crises with an even-hand. One who doesn’t rail against critics. One who puts the nation above his own ego.

So, with Epstein above, I wonder if we can survive with three more years of the Trump reality show, not to mention an almost unthinkable seven.

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 I played the role of state lobbyist for nearly 40 years here in Oregon, I often remembered counsel from one of the persons for whom I worked in state government.

The easiest thing to do, this manager said, “is to be cynical about the state legislature.”

He advocated a more reasonable perspective because, after all, as often is said, “we may not like the form of government we have, but it is better than any other form.”

Legislators here often provide some rationale for cynicism, but as both a lobbyist and an observer of politics in Oregon, I tried to observe this critical distinction: Be skeptical, not cynical.

Skepticism was a trait I learned as a newspaper reporter when I practiced a kind of “trust, but verify” stance over those in local government whom I covered.

I remembered my manager’s advice over the last couple weeks as I played golf in La Quinta, California with a friend of mine who runs a business. While we focused on golf, we also had a few brief conversations about politics.

He said two things that resonated with me. One was that he was irritated that legislators didn’t work harder to find middle ground. I concurred with that perception and have written about it on numerous occasions. Compromise is better than gridlock.

But, he also said, perhaps a bit cynically, that he felt money in politics indicated that all legislators were on the take.

To that, I say no.

Of course, some are and that kind of perverse behavior generates headlines and creates the opportunity to assume everyone is unethical.

But, in my experience, most legislators who come to Salem are trying “to do the right thing” in a tough environment. Imagine if you had 90 friends, put them in one building and told them to solve tough problems. It might not look pretty and they might not succeed.

Most of the time, even when legislators accepted money from those who wanted to help fund their campaigns, they tried to observe a bright line between money and actions in the legislature. It always helped that contributions were not allowed in Oregon during legislative sessions.

As a lobbyist, I, as well as colleagues in my firm, followed a few key precepts on behalf of our clients when it came to political contributions:

• When we made contributions, we did not expect specific actions in return.
• Well, perhaps we expected one action, which was to consider the views we expressed on behalf of clients, then assume legislators would make their own decisions as they considered all of the alternative points of view, including ours.
• We did not keep voting records. Rather, we kept “relationship records.” We wanted to support candidates who would value their relationship with us as lobbyists just as we valued their role as legislators.
• Okay, you may say – get real. You must have known how legislators voted on issues important to you. The answer, of course, is yes. But we did not keep records on all votes, preferring to keep records on relationships.

So, to my friend on the golf course, I say be skeptical. Do not believe what you hear first or hear from one source. Consider all sources. But also don’t be cynical — do not believe that all legislators are in the political game for their own personal interests.

Analyze issues and those legislators who represent you, be skeptical, and allow the skepticism to yield general perspectives, not cynical ones.

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.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago, Joseph Epstein had a great idea.

Ignore Trump’s tweets!

The country, he said, would be better for it.

He reported that his son had nicely formulated “the Donald Trump problem for thoughtful conservatives.”

“I approve of almost everything he has done,” the son remarked, “and I disapprove of almost everything he has said.”

I second that notion. On the positive side, the Trump Administration gets credit from me for nominating Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, for moving of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, for removing often-strangling regulations from business, for opening the Keystone pipeline, and for helping to pass tax-reform law.

On the negative side, consider the tweets — the bragging tweets, the touchiness, the crude put-downs of anyone who disagrees with him (“Little Marco, ” “insecure Oprah, ” “Sloppy Steve, ” and the rest), the unrestrained vulgarity.

Epstein goes on: “America has had ignorant, corrupt, vain, lazy presidents before, but in Donald Trump we have the first president who is a genuine boor.

“In many realms of life, a boor’s rude, unmannerly nature can be forgivable. A wise stockbroker, who makes his clients lots of money, might get away with being a boor. A boorish winning football coach— Mike Ditka, take a bow—is livable if not likable. Showbiz has never been without its boors, from George Jessel to Whoopi Goldberg. Even a boorish friend is possible, if he is also loyal, generous and honorable. But a boorish president of the United States presents a problem.

“The presidency, like the monarchy in England, has a symbolic along with a practical aspect. The president is meant to represent the nation at its best. What precisely that means can vary greatly in a country as wide and differentiated as ours. Dwight David Eisenhower was a different model of our best than was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Harry S. Truman was different again, and yet in his own way he represented the country, in its Middle Western, small-business, common-sensical strain.”

Think back to President Barack Obama.   It was possible to oppose much of what he did — a bad nuclear deal with Iran, a hopelessly cumbersome health-care law, deserting Israel at the United Nations, and various actions to exacerbate, not alleviate race relations (though on that score, he gets a pass from me because he had to contend, himself, with being the first Black president in U.S. history, which subjected him to racism).

Yet, there was almost no hint of corruption, no sexual scandal of any sort for Obama, who came across as a loving husband and a good father.

“What is to be done?” Epstein wonders.

“ I wonder if we might start with journalism. What if American reporters began by ignoring Trump’s tweets, treating them as no more than the belches and embarrassing flatulence of an incurably dyspeptic man? Heavy media coverage of his tweets only encourages the old boy.

“As things stand, with television commentators awaiting each morning’s fresh batch of presidential tweets, and with journalists sniffing out possible sex scandals like so many truffle dogs, the coverage of our politics seems rarely to rise above the intellectual level of the New York Post’s gossip-filled Page Six. Gossip is amusing in its place, but when that place is the White House it tends to lose its allure. In fact, it makes politics in the United States dreary beyond reckoning.”

So, with Epstein’s writing in view, what about this combination: A number of the Trump accomplishments (mainly those listed above), with the style of Obama?

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.

A couple days ago, we left La Quinta, California where we had been for about seven weeks.

We headed back to our home in Salem, Oregon where the temperature is in the 40s by contrast to the 70s in La Quinta.

Oh well! Back to what we know and love – home. We arrived yesterday and, sure enough, it was raining a bit and cold.

Here are a few of the qualities that draw us to La Quinta:

• First, of course, the weather. Not just the warmer temperatures, but also the sun in the day and the stars at night.
• Second, the flowers. There is more color and variety here than almost anywhere else!
• Third, the specific places we love. Chief among these is The Plaza at the old La Quinta Hotel where it is possible to have a drink (or two) and listen to music provided by a group called the Inca Kings, whom we have heard for more than 30 years while visiting the desert.
• Fourth, golf! I have the benefit of being able to play at The Palms, a course that was developed in 1999 and now markets itself as a place for “golf purists.” There is almost nothing but golf. Just a clubhouse for the 19^th
• And, fifth, the privilege of having our kids and grandchildren visit us in La Quinta where, to use my wife’s great phrase, “we are making more memories.” We did this year again and it was great to see how our family enjoys La Quinta as much as we do.

Making more memories! We make them in Salem, too, and I’ll be doing so in about an hour when I tee off on my home course – in 40 degree weather and cloudy skies.