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.

If confession is even appropriate in this case, let me confess this:  I like Paul Ryan.

• I liked him when he was “just” a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
• I liked him when he was asked to run for vice president on a Republican ticket with Mitt Romney.
• I liked him when, under pressure after the resignation of John Boehner, he agreed to take over as Speaker of the House.
• I liked how he tried the run the gauntlet of being Speaker in a House where many members didn’t want to be led anywhere.
• I like him now as he heads toward retirement at the young age of 48, saying he will never run for public office again.

I don’t blame him.

Who would want to try to herd cats as Speaker of the House, then contend with Donald Trump as president?

Not me.

Ryan is a person of ideas and it appears that he could not continue serving in the powder-keg of Congress where policy goals often get short shrift and almost always lead to contention, not resolution

Here’s the way the Wall Street Journal put it in its lead editorial:

“Paul Ryan’s decision not to run for re-election for Congress is a blow to Republicans, and his departure at age 48 will leave a particular void in the GOP’s growth and reform wing. But the lesson of his 20 years in Congress is that the Members who matter are those who change the public debate about policies of consequence.

“Mr. Ryan deserves credit for taking the job of Speaker that no one else wanted after John Boehner resigned in 2015. He knew the legislative grinder was likely to end his chances of becoming President, but he did it anyway. His policy chops and listening skills helped rally the fractious GOP House into a governing majority rather than merely an opposition to Barack Obama. They developed the “Better Way” reform platform in 2016, and in this Congress they’ve passed most of it through the House and much into law.

“The talk-show right won’t admit this (Ryan’s accomplishments) because Mr. Ryan understands the occasional need to compromise and hasn’t embraced extreme anti-immigration positions. They have railed against Mr. Ryan as a totem of ‘the establishment,’ which was always more epithet than argument. Mr. Ryan knows that the point of politics is to win power to pass your agenda, not remain in feckless opposition to the supposedly un-reformable entitlement state.”

Or, this from Wall Street Journal columnist Karl Rove:

“Mr. Ryan will leave Congress with the respect of virtually every member of his caucus, to say nothing of Democrats who can’t help but like him despite their policy differences. No one else could have matched his performance at keeping House Republicans moving in a constructive direction over the last three years. That he did so while also deftly managing relations with this White House—not known for its maturity or predictability—is all the more impressive.

“Mr. Ryan’s departure from the House will be a loss for the country, too. Like his mentor, Jack Kemp, Mr. Ryan is optimistic, generous in spirit, committed to outreach, and animated by ideas. He is willing to work across party lines, as in the 2013 budget deal. And throughout his public life, he has shown integrity, civility and decency—qualities much too rare in today’s coarse and ugly political culture.”

Another columnist I read said “the departing speaker’s central insight is that serious governments have to choose. His years long effort to reform America’s entitlements was really an attempt to guide a new debate about the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of government spending. The shame of the Ryan years—and it’s our shame as voters, not his—is that too few Republicans, let alone citizens at large, were prepared to engage that discussion seriously.

“The dangerous alternative into which those on the right too often fall is to obsess solely over the fiscal ‘how much.’ The mark of a party that’s truly ready to lead will not be the passage of a gimmicky and futile balanced-budget requirement. It will be a political commitment to the entitlement reforms without which a balanced budget will never be possible.

“The deeper failure is one of basic governance. Choosing austerity means refusing to choose in any meaningful way.”

This is one of the reasons Ryan’s legacy is positive in my mind. He knew that developing a government budget is more than just adding and subtracting numbers. It is making conscious policy decisions. For Ryan, it was making real decisions on entitlements so government dollars could be allocated in specific, intentional ways – including to entitlements, as well as to priorities such as public safety.

One of my friends yesterday said Ryan deserves criticism for not standing up more strongly to Trump. Well, no matter what Ryan did or did not do, it wouldn’t matter to the mad-hatter who sits in the Oval Office.

What Congress needs is more smart minds like Ryan’s who will propose policies and challenge the conventional wisdom today that government cannot operate effectively.

So, kudos to him as he leaves government and moves on with his life.