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 was fortunate yesterday to be otherwise occupied and so couldn’t watch the circus atmosphere in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s first day of hearings on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Calling it a “circus” is to give it a compliment, at least based on what I read in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

For my part, I say a pox on both parties in Congress. Each does a bad job of conducting its affairs, including when the public has a chance to look in on the process. Republicans irritated Democrats when they refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the country’s highest court.

Now, Democrats are trying to get even by contending that the Republican confirmation process has gone astray to serve conservative, Republican ends.

Here’s how writer Amber Phillips put it in a Washington Post story:

“The Brett Kavanaugh Su­preme Court hear­ings are ugly, there’s no ar­gu­ing that. Democrats are try­ing to end the hear­ing before it gets start­ed. There are re­peat­ed in­ter­rup­tions by protesters. Re­pub­lic­ans are ac­cus­ing Democrats of the e­quiv­a­lent of con­tempt of court and protesters of ‘mob rule.’ It’s a man­i­fes­ta­tion of the hyper-politicized en­vi­ron­ment we find our­selves in.”

Phillips is right. She went on to compliment one senator, Ben Sasse, Republican from Nebraska, for his analysis of the “process,” if you even can call the first hearing part of a “process.”

“In a word,” Sasse said the problem “is Congress.”   And he added: “In a few more words, Congress is ab­di­cat­ing its duty to write laws, which leaves people to place their hopes in the ju­di­cial branch to try to get their prob­lems solved. At the end of the day, a lot of the pow­er del­e­ga­tion that hap­pens from this branch is be­cause Congress has de­cid­ed to self-neu­ter.”

Sasse broke down his ar­gu­ment into four bullet points, which are worth considering:

1. Congress is set up to be the most po­lit­i­cal branch. “This is sup­posed to be the in­sti­tu­tion dedi­cat­ed to po­lit­i­cal fights,” Sasse said.
2. But in the name of politics, lawmakers have de­cid­ed to keep their jobs rath­er than take tough votes. “Most people here want their jobs more than they re­al­ly want to do legis­la­tive work, and so they punt their legis­la­tive work to the next branch,” Sasse said.
3. Be­cause Congress of­ten lets the ex­ec­u­tive branch write rules, and Americans aren’t sure who in the gov­ern­ment bureauc­ra­cy to talk to, that leaves Americans with no oth­er place than the courts to turn to ex­press their frus­tra­tion with poli­cies. And the Su­preme Court, with its nine vis­i­ble mem­bers, is a con­veni­ent out­let. Sasse: “This trans­fer of pow­er means people yearn for a place where politics can be done, and when we don’t do a lot of big po­lit­i­cal debate here, people trans­fer it to the Su­preme Court. And that’s why the Su­preme Court is in­creas­ing­ly a sub­sti­tute po­lit­i­cal battle­ground for America.”
4. Sasse’s final point: “This proc­ess needs to change. If Congress did more legis­lat­ing, these Su­preme Court nom­i­na­tion bat­tles would get less po­lit­i­cal,” he ar­gues: “If we see lots and lots of pro­tests in front of the Su­preme Court, that’s a pret­ty good ba­rom­e­ter of the fact that our re­pub­lic isn’t heal­thy. They shouldn’t be pro­test­ing in front of the Su­preme Court, they should be pro­test­ing in front of this body.”

To contend that Congress has failed to do its duty, thus leading to the circus atmosphere in the Senate Judiciary Committee, could be an understatement.

I have been part of confirmation processes in Salem and in Washington, D.C. They became more about political than about qualifications to hold public office, which, I guess, is another way to underline Senator Sasse’s points.

It may be hoping and dreaming, but I hope and dream that Congress will find a way to get back to doing the public’s business instead of, as Sasse put it, “wanting their jobs more than they re­al­ly want to do legis­la­tive work.”

Call me PollyAnna.

And, good that I will be otherwise occupied today so won’t have to endure another day of the circus in Washington, D.C.