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.

Is what is occurring in Washington, D.C. – an impeachment inquiry into the conduct of President Donald Trump – warranted or not?

There are multiple ways to answer that question.

My answer — if I go to the length of commenting on a process in which I am not involved directly and which is occurring more than 3,000 miles from where I live – is simple: Yes.

I say that because what I hope occurs is what happened when Congress subjected then-President Richard Nixon to an impeachment process after the Watergate break-in.

Then, the more we learned about Nixon’s actions, the more it showed how he broke the law even as he contended that he did nothing wrong. So, I hope the more we learn about Trump’s conduct the more it will be suspect and worthy of conviction, thus removal from office.

Far-fetched? Yes, in our increasingly tinged and over-the-top version of politics these days, especially as Republicans work to defend “their leader.”

Daniel Henninger, deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, put it this way after the first day of public impeachment hearings in the U.S. House:

“So what else is new? Internal policy battles of this intensity (the one dealing with what Trump and his administration do and when and why did they do it) are a constant of government life.

“Other than dragging in the Bidens, this is hardly different from a host of similar Trumpian foreign-policy interventions: His decision after the first summit with Kim Jong Un to reduce military exercises with South Korea; the 2018 decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, which caused Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign; his decision in 2017 to impose tariffs on virtually all the major U.S. trading partners, no matter the effect on domestic farmers and businesses; his decision last month to pull U.S. forces in northern Syria away from the Kurds, who he said ‘didn’t help us with Normandy.’”

“My own favorite of stillborn Trump foreign-policy ideas,” Henninger continues “was his tweet, days before the anniversary of 9/11 this year: “Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan, were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday.” The Taliban at Camp David—now that would have been impeachable.”

Just consider, for a moment, Trump’s incredibly stupid actions as president. Impeach him, I say, for his stupidity, which puts America in jeopardy.

Henninger uses his words to contend that, at most, Trump and his administration should have been subjected to oversight hearings in Congress, not an impeachment process.

Add to that the president’s abhorrent personal conduct in office — his dishonesty, his intention never to cooperate with Congressional oversight, his failure to exhibit any of the leadership credentials of a president.

The time for impeachment had arrived.

Consider this from Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal this morning:

“There was something grave in it (the first day of impeachment hearings), and a kind of reckoning. This was due to the dignity and professionalism of the career diplomats who calmly and methodically told what they had seen and experienced. They were believable. It didn’t feel embarrassing to have faith in them.

“Republicans on the panel didn’t know what to do. They know what this story is, and I believe they absolutely know the president muscled an ally, holding public money over its head to get a personal political favor. But they’re his party, they didn’t want to look weak, they had to show the base they had his back. In their interruptions and chaos-strewing they attempted to do some of what the Democrats did during the Kavanaugh hearings…”

Noonan’s point – career, credible, experienced public servants telling Congress and America what they know about Trump – is worth repeating. For it may foretell what I hope the impeachment process produces, which is evidence that Trump should not sit in the Oval Office or be anywhere near the levers of presidential power.