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.

Long-time Democrat activist Rahm Emanuel – once a White House chief of staff, as well as mayor of Chicago – said something insightful on a news/commentary show over the weekend.

I don’t usually cite Emanuel as worth quoting, but here is what he said:

“What motivates Donald Trump more than anything is a fear of being exposed.”

Stop and think about that for moment. That’s why, for instance, Trump continues to oppose any effort to see his tax returns. He doesn’t want to be exposed as someone who does not pay his full share, despite his net worth – at least net worth he suggests he has.

It also is why he blanches at any turn when it appears he might have to unveil aspects of his real conduct, no matter the subject.  And it is why he doesn’t want to be exposed as a fraud.

I lived through the Watergate debacle many years ago, and, while it was a very difficult time in this country’s history, it also had the effect of reinforcing ethics and honesty in government.

Now I venture to say I hope the current impeachment process produces the same result in relation to Trump – exposing his every criminal or nearly-criminal act.

As the Watergate investigation moved forward, we learned more and more about President Richard Nixon’s action to authorize the break-in at Democrat headquarters, plus to cover it up.

And, the more we knew about Nixon’s efforts, the more it weakened his ability to withstand the impeachment process. He resigned. For the good the country.

Will the same happen to Trump?

I suspect that, if the current impeachment process reveals “high crimes and misdemeanors,” Trump will just balk, calling everyone who opposes him part of an effort to overturn the 2016 election. He would try not to leave the presidency for the good of the country, even if convicted.

Meanwhile, as the impeachment process moves forward, Trump will try to influence media coverage with endless tweets and over-the-top rhetoric designed to show, again, that he thinks he always is the smartest person in the room and doesn’t have to answer to anyone, including the Constitution, Congress or the American people.

Late last week, his rhetoric may have caught up with him, at least for one news cycle (if there is a cycle any longer). It was when he rolled out a tweet designed to intimidate impeachment witness, Marie Yovanovitch, at the same moment as she was testifying. That became the story of the day, prompting even Republicans to criticize Trump.

Trouble is, many Americans still support Trump, no matter what he says or does. To Trumpians, he can do no wrong, no matter how wrong he is.

In a piece in the Washington Post this weekend, James Robenalt, an attorney in Cleveland and the author of four non-fiction books, including “January 1973: Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam, and the Month That Change America Forever,” posits that the current impeachment process “won’t matter as much as Watergate’s.”

He adds: “Since we have the transcript of the Ukraine call, the testimony may seem anti-climactic.”

Then he recalls: “When John Dean testified in June 1973 before the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities — for a full week — the nation was riveted. Here was a young former counsel to the president, telling the country that he had warned Richard Nixon that ‘there was a cancer growing on the presidency’ and that ‘if the cancer was not removed, the president himself would be killed by it.’ All three major networks carried his testimony. But for all the drama of Dean’s appearance, it did not push the public to conclude that Nixon had to go.”

It took a year of further Watergate revelations, culminating in the court-ordered release of a tape on which Nixon was heard ordering his chief of staff to tell the CIA to kill the FBI’s Watergate investigation, to push public opinion solidly toward impeachment.

So, I hope that the more we learn about Trump’s conduct, the more pressure will build toward conviction. That won’t occur unless Republicans in the Senate develop some political backbone (as I wrote in a blog yesterday) to oppose Trump.

Consider what has happened so far to Trump acolytes:

• Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, is in prison after being found guilty on charges including fraud.
• Manafort’s deputy on the campaign, his longtime business partner Rick Gates, is awaiting sentencing after agreeing to cooperate with investigators and pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge. Gates was also part of Trump’s inaugural team.
• Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn is awaiting sentencing for having lied to federal investigators.
• Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen is in prison, serving time for charges including lying to Congress, fraud and campaign finance violations — charges in which he implicated Trump.
• A foreign policy adviser on Trump’s campaign, George Papadopoulos, was convicted of lying to investigators and served time in prison.
• Roger Stone has been convicted by a jury of lying to Congress, apparently to protect Trump as part of the Russia probe and is now awaiting sentencing.

Will Trump follow? As the standard phrase goes, only time will tell.

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And this footnote: I have been involved for several months as a volunteer on a committee formed by Oregon Common Cause to consider ways to promote ethics as a factor in current public service, as well as in the minds of voters. Since Watergate, ethics has receded as a factor in public life. Too bad. A commitment to solid civics, not to mention American democracy, requires a commitment to honesty, ethics, and integrity. All too often, they are missing.