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 to 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 press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as 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 three departments I run as dictator – er, director. This one exists because I like each of the “bits and pieces” below, but don’t want to write individual blogs about them.

So, here goes.

BERNIE SANDERS STILL HAS NO ANSWER ON HEALTH CARE: On the debate stage with other Ds running for president (was it actually a debate? I say no), Sanders didn’t have an answer for the big question about his proposal – the fact that his plan would do away with private health insurance, which many policy holders value.

Another debater asked why even successful health plans have to be outlawed under the Sanders plan. Sanders had no answer then; he has no answer now.

Which, for me, underlines what I think is necessary in the debate over health care: Get smart people on all sides of the issue in the same room and find solutions in the middle.

Sanders wouldn’t be there. Neither would Donald Trump.

BIDEN GETS CENSURED FOR WORKING TOGETHER WITH THOSE WHO DON’T SHARE HIS VIEWS: At a recent a fundraiser in Manhattan, Biden made comments that no reasonable person would interpret as racially insensitive — and was immediately censured by his Democrat competitors as though he had defended Jim Crow.

Biden recalled working as a young Democrat with Senator with James Eastland (Mississippi) and Herman Talmadge (Georgia), both segregationists and unrepentant critics of the civil-rights movement. Biden’s point was that he is able to work with people with whom he had profound disagreements to achieve constructive results – on issues other than, for example segregation.

“You have to be able to reach consensus under our system,” he said, and he’s a consensus builder.

“Well guess what?” Biden added. “At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today you look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore.”

For that comment, Biden came under attack and it is not clear that he will recover from a comment that has riled up his competitors.

But his point is worth considering. In politics, it often is a reality that you have to work with other elected officials with whom you patently disagree. Don’t work with them, in Biden’s case, on racist issue; work with them on other issues.

It’s called compromise, the art of politics.

CLOSER TO HOME, WHAT ABOUT SENATOR BRIAN BOQUIST?: When Senate Republicans walked out of the Senate denying a quorum over concern about an anti-rural “cap-and-trade” bill, Boquist, a Republican from Dallas, issued what could have been considered a threat against State Police who had been sent to round up he and his colleagues.

He told the governor: Send only bachelors because I won’t become a political prisoner.

No one knew whether he was kidding or not.

When the Senate Rs returned to the Capitol, two Democrat senators would not remain on the Senate floor with Boquist, saying they were concerned for their safety if Boquist was “carrying” – a gun, that is.

Eventually, he left, but he will still be subject to a censure vote in a Senate committee tomorrow, Monday.

This is an example of how bad politics has become in our state — another sad story.

AND ABOUT LEGISLATIVE WALKOUTS: Say what you will about the Republican tactic this time around — that is, if you care at all – but just know that the tactic has been used before by both Republicans and Democrats.

Democrats have left the Capitol in the past. Republicans did this time around.

My only point is that it has gone both ways in the past.

Should walkouts be allowed? For my part, I say no. Stay and do the work of legislating, win or lose. Win some. Lose some. But, walking out is, at the moment, a legal tactic.