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.

Sometimes I feel a little like Dana Milbank, the columnist for the Washington Post, who has made a living over the last three years lodging huge criticisms of Donald Trump.

I, too, find it within reason to rail against the excesses of Trump, perhaps even, as Milbank does, on a daily.

You know the guy, Trump. Incredibly, he occupies the Oval Office in the White House. Though who knows if he spends much time there, preferring to be out on the campaign trail inflaming his political base.

Patterning myself after Milbank, I include in this blog several quotes about Trump and, goodness knows, there are many options for inclusion.

All of this goes into one of three departments I run, the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering. Along with the other departments – the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of Bits and Pieces – I have a free hand to run the operations as I see fit.

Now, about Trump.

APPROPRIATELY, THIS FIRST ITEM FROM MILBANK:  “He was straight out of Foggy Bottom central casting.

“Lean and bespectacled, with neatly combed gray hair and a pressed charcoal suit, William B. Taylor Jr., the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, gave not so much as a glance toward the massed cameras as he arrived Tuesday (to provide a deposition to the U.S. House).

“But once inside, he delivered words that could end a presidency.

“In August and September of this year, I became increasingly concerned that our relationship with Ukraine was being fundamentally undermined by an irregular informal channel of U.S. policy-making and by the withholding of vital security assistance for domestic political reasons,” Taylor testified. Taylor said President Trump himself made the release of military aid to Ukraine contingent on a public declaration by Ukraine’s president that the country would investigate Joe and Hunter Biden and the 2016 election.

“In an instant, the impeachment inquiry no longer rested on the credibility or motives of a whistleblower, nor arguments about the meaning of quid pro quo. Taylor, an Army veteran and a respected diplomat who obviously kept detailed notes, will not be easy to discredit.”

Comment: Milbank is right. The case against Trump is getting stronger every day.

FROM COLUMNIST ROBERT SAMUELSON IN THE WASHINGTON POST:  “No one has worked more aggressively to trigger impeachment than the president. You may remember that, during the campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump suggested that, should he win, he might become one of the most “boring” presidents in history. There was in this curious pledge — which, as we now know, has been broken along with many other campaign promises — at least the slim possibility that Trump would recognize the crucial difference between running for office and running the country.

Imagine, if you will, the consequences if Trump had embraced this pivotal distinction…What mattered was tone — the ability to debate issues without impugning the character of his opponents. To be sure, partisan debate is full of exaggerations and simplicities. Still, it usually respects some bounds of truth and civility. Following this traditional path, Trump might have boosted his popularity, especially given the strong economy inherited from President Barack Obama. Even fierce critics might have conceded that, in practice, the “boring” Trump wasn’t so bad.

“Trump appeals to his supporters’ basest human instincts. He regularly uses immigration to stir racial and ethnic tensions.”

Comment: Yes. Trump appeals to base instincts because, in fact, that’s all he has himself.

FROM KIMBERLEY STRASSEL IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:  “The nation has struggled to categorize the Democratic presidential candidates. Senator Elizabeth Warren is some days a “populist,” others a “liberal.” Senator Bernie Sanders is at pains to define “democratic socialism” as apart from plain, old “socialism.” The media describes Senator Amy Klobuchar as a “centrist” or “moderate,” even as she insists on “proven progressive.”

“There’s an easier taxonomy: Lefties vs. Crazy Lefties. That’s the choice Democrats have in the primaries, and the two pools from which Donald Trump’s opponent will come.”

Comment: I am not sure where Trump fits on any political spectrum, but almost all of those still running as Democrats hew so far to the left it is also hard to find them.

I am waiting for someone to emerge from the center. May be a long wait.