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 is one of three departments I run with a free hand to do as I wish, which means, forgive the thought, that I am a bit like Donald Trump as he “runs” the presidency — no sideboards.

The other departments I run are the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering.

The Department of Just Saying is now open.

Example #1: Just saying that Nancy Pelosi as U. S. House Speaker is not the leader we deserve.

Here’s how the Wall Street Journal put it, with tongue at least partially in cheek:

“Doing her best to raise the level of civility in Washington, Nancy Pelosi called William Barr a liar on Thursday. The House Speaker even accused the Attorney General of committing a ‘crime’ when he testified to Congress about a memo he issued outlining the main conclusions of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

“The Speaker says the AG lied last month when he said he didn’t know what members of the special counsel’s team were referencing when they complained his memo didn’t accurately portray their findings. Barr said he didn’t know, but that ‘they probably wanted more put out.’

“At most this is a small evasion. Barr had talked to Mueller, who had told him nothing in the AG’s summary was inaccurate and was unspecific in his objections beyond wanting more of his report released. The AG should have anticipated that Mueller’s March 27 letter to him would leak, but he didn’t lie about its contents.

“The real reason for Mrs. Pelosi’s slander is what else said the last time he was before Congress. He said that spying on a political campaign was a ‘big deal,’ that he thought the FBI did spy on the Trump campaign in 2016, and that he intends to find out what happened and why. Democrats want to intimidate him to drop this or discredit him before he can release his findings.”

Example #2: Just saying that Representative Jerry Nadler, Democrat from New York, should get about the important business of legislating, not trying to hang Attorney General William Barr.

Again, here’s the way the Wall Street Journal put it:

“The congressman from New York has been itching to get Donald Trump almost from the day he was elected president. Alas, just as Nadler finds himself in a position to do it—as House Judiciary Committee chairman he has jurisdiction over impeachment proceedings—special counsel Robert Mueller dropped a report that found zero evidence of collusion with Russia. With no crime to cover up, what would the president have been obstructing?

“But like a crooked sheriff in a low-budget Western, Nadler is determined to go on with his hanging—even if it’s not the guy originally planned. Which explains what the committee’s ranking member, Georgia’s Doug Collins, characterizes as a ‘deluge of perverse demands’ Nadler has made on Attorney General William Barr: That he submit to grilling from lawyers instead of Members of Congress; that he release grand-jury testimony; and that he comply with an artificial deadline or be held in contempt of Congress.”

Example #3: Just saying that Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat from California, better get her act together if she intends to compete for the presidency on the D side.

Again, from the Wall Street Journal:

“The reviews are in, and Senator Kamala Harris’s performance during Attorney General William Barr’s testimony last week was a hit! ‘Kamala Harris Guts Barr Like a Fish, Leaves Him Flopping on the Deck,’ Vanity Fair announced. The only problem with her made-for-TV performance is that Harris’s questions were absurd—so vague or weird that they perplexed the attorney general.

“Has the president or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone, yes or no?” she asked. Barr stared at the ceiling and twirled his pen deliberatively. He said he was struggling with the ambiguity of the word ‘suggest,’ but he could just have easily have pointed to the two occurrences of the broad term ‘anyone,’ as well as the vagueness of the topic of the prospective ‘investigation.’ Something related to the Mueller report? Maybe, but her phrasing leaves that open.”

As a person who operates from the center – all right, perhaps just a bit right of center – I think we need better leaders on both sides of the aisle in Washington, D.C.

For one thing, with the Mueller report now open to anyone in a lightly-redacted form – and its conclusion, for better or worse, depending on your point-of-view — it is time to get on with the business of legislating, not trying to create collusion where Mueller could not find any.

With no underlying crime, there would be no obstruction and I say this, not to whitewash Trump, but to contend that he should be held to account for what he has done and said, not for vague obstruction notions.

Kick him out of office by beating him at the polls in 2020. To do that, Democrats will need to find leaders better than Pelosi, Nadler or Harris.

Bring on centrists who will pledge to restore dignity and character to the highest office in the land, the presidency, as well to Congress where many issues lie on the cutting room floor as everyone investigates everyone else.

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Because the Department of Pet Peeves is not open, let me add this pet peeve, plus my solution to it based, of course, on my intelligence and creativity.

My pet peeve is that, when you buy a new garden hose, there always is a “this doesn’t kink-up factor.” Of course, the moment you get it home, it kinks up.

Not, I report, with a metal hose. We have bought two and, wonder of wonders, no kink!