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.

I draw this blog headline from a story in The Atlantic that pilloried California Representative Devin Nunes.

He deserves it.

As the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, he has conducted himself with disdain for everybody on the other side of the political aisle – or, for that matter, with those who testified =in the impeachment inquiry.

To say he is a defender if President Donald Trump is to utter an understatement.

I have been stunned about how badly he performed under the glare of publicity.

For instance, rather than mention the absolute seriousness of the process and then disagree with it as he continued to support Trump – a plausible position, given his Republican credentials –Nunes diverged off into disparaging everyone.

TV ratings he said would be low. The conduct of the chair of the Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, was offensive, Nunes said even as he Nunes, by protocol, sat directly next to Schiff.

Beyond that, Nunes has continued to propound untruths about how virtuous Trump is, how Ukraine sought to upend the Trump presidency (not true; by any reputable account, it was Russia, not Ukraine, that sought to compromise the 2016 election), and how various administrative officials came across as buffoons.

No. It is Nunes who is the buffoon.

According to The Atlantic, Nunes operates with no basis in fact or history. The on-line magazine goes on to characterize his approach in words with huge implications.

“He is not interested in talking with anyone who is interested in checking claims, or verifying statements. He is talking only with people locked into a closed and sealed knowledge system.

“This closed knowledge system entraps millions of Americans in a universe of untruth, in which Trump is a victim and the allegations against him are ‘fake news.’ The prisoners and victims of this system live in a dream-world of lies. Yet, it would not quite be accurate to describe them as uninformed. They are disinformed, and on a huge scale. The false-knowledge system supported by Nunes is closed and sealed, but also vast and intricate.”

Trump’s conduct to seek Ukraine’s help in his 2020 campaign, The Atlantic says, “is simple and straightforward. It can all be summarized in a few sentences of plain English: Trump wanted dirty help for his 2020 re-election campaign. He sent messages demanding that dirty help to the Ukrainians directly on the phone and via his henchmen. He stalled military aid to extort the help. The Ukrainians nearly surrendered, until the whistle-blower report reached Congress on September 9 and knocked loose the aid on September 11.”

Nunes doesn’t indicate that he cares. He parrots phrases he watches or hears on Fox News or on pro-Trump websites – such callout phrases as “Burisma.” “Hunter Biden.” “Where’s the whistle-blower?” “Vindman’s conflict of interests.” “Star chamber.” “#coup has started.”

More from The Atlantic:

“The accusations against Trump are direct and intelligible to any open mind. The defense of Trump resembles the Star Wars saga: A universe of storytelling, in multiple parts, much of it comprehensible only if you venture beyond the visual franchise to a huge appendix of fan fiction and Wikipedia pages.

“At Fox News, on talk radio, and on the web, American conservatives have built a communications system that effectively consolidates in-group identity. Much of the time, the talkers and listeners do not themselves understand what they are saying. They use key words and phrases as gang signs: Badges of identity that are recognized without necessarily being understood. This system of communication tightly bonds in-group members. That bond, in turn, exerts tremendous power over American politics.”

So, we have the far right (if “right” describes where Trump and acolytes reside) exerting “tremendous power over American politics.” Nunes is a key figure in this effort to subvert and control.

I wish him nothing but failure, hoping against hope that his diatribes will fall on at least a few deaf ears.

Further, late news over the last few days is that Nunes himself, with his staff, conducted on-site “investigations” in Ukraine designed to promote Trump conspiracy theories. For that, though he denies the effort, it appears he may be subject to a House Ethics Committee investigation if only because, for one thing, he used taxpayer money to go on his pro-Trump expedition.