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 with a free hand to manage as I – and only I – see fit.

The others are the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering.

I suppose what appears below could fit into Good Quotes Department, but I choose Bits and Pieces. 

From James Freeman in the Wall Street Journal: “Virtually every major candidate has a proposal that would cost a trillion dollars or more, and even those positioning themselves as moderates, like Pete Buttigieg, have multiple trillion-dollar plans.

“It increasingly looks like an arms race in which case a proposal needs a 13-digit price tag to appear bold and plans costing mere billions risk being taken as not serious. Both Kamala Harris and Julián Castro have $10 trillion plans to address climate change.

“Sanders has at least four mega-proposals dealing with Medicare, climate change, college-tuition costs and, most recently, affordable housing.

“Even Amy Klobuchar, who has repeatedly criticized her opponents’ proposals as unrealistically large, has a $1 trillion infrastructure plan.”

Comment: All of this calls to mind a good phrase – “it is easy to spend other people’s money.”

I wish at least a couple of those running for president from the left would limit the “government hand-out” emphasis from their proposals. Is there a role for government? Sure. Should it cost everyone more money than they have? No.

Notable & Quotable: Pelosi Against Impeachment: The Wall Street Journal shows up today with a quote from Representative Nancy Pelosi back in 1998 when she represented California and was not Speaker of the House.

Here is what she said: “Today, the Republican majority is not judging the president with fairness but impeaching him with a vengeance. In the investigation of the president, fundamental principles which Americans hold dear—privacy, fairness, checks and balances—have been seriously violated.

“And why? . . . We are here today because the Republicans in the House are paralyzed with hatred of President Clinton. And until the Republicans free themselves of this hatred, our country will suffer.

“I rise to oppose these unfair motions, which call for removal of the president of the United States from office.”

Comment: Now, to be sure, the current situation involving Donald Trump is different from the one involving then-President Bill Clinton. But, in the current case, Pelosi needs to be careful to run an impeachment process that, whatever the result, comes across as fair and open.

At the moment, she is coming under some criticism from House Republicans that she has not held a vote on whether to begin the process, just starting it on her own motion. That, Republicans contend, silences them from discussing whether they agree or not. Surely, they would not agree.

But, even in my role as a huge critic of Trump, I also believe leaders should pay close attention to the process so it appears to be fair, though there is little doubt but that Trump will impugn it at every turn.

Columnist Hugh Hewitt in the Washington Post: “If you are a member of #TheResistance or a #NeverTrumper, it is doubtful you will allow yourself to see the enormous problem with the move toward show hearings in the House and a vote on articles of impeachment.

“If you are an #AlwaysTrumper, you will be in a position to believe that an off-the-rails House is abusing the provisions of impeachment for purely partisan purposes.”

Comment: First, the Washington Post deserves credit for giving Hewitt space to write when he disagrees staunchly with the Post’s editorial position in favor of impeachment.

Second, Hewitt is right. AlwaysTrumper and NeverTrumper folks will never agree on impeachment. To Trump troops, it will be another attempt by the left to invalidate the 2016 election. To Trump opponents, it will be about time for Trump’s conduct and rhetoric to be unveiled as beyond the scope of a “real president.”

The term “real president” is mine and indicates where, for what it’s worth, I stand on the reality of government run amok. Trump is the worst president in U.S. history. The Ds may recognize that, but are moving so far left as to be off any kind of political spectrum.

I say a pox on both – or all – sides. The risk is that the very future of American democracy is at stake.