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.

Even as the U.S. House is debating impeachment at this moment, I write again about the bottom line for me.

By Trump’s defenders, we – as Americana – are being asked to just head to the 2020 election rather that support impeachment.

Sure, we are supposed to trust that the election will be fair. It won’t be.

To buttress this point, I point to a column by Dana Milbank that appeared this morning in the Washington Post. He writes that, not only does Trump stanbd accused of asking a foreign government to intrude into the election on his behalf, he is continuing to seek the what has been labeled “a favor.”

Rather than post more of my comments on this blog, I simply will quote excerpts of what Milbank has written.

**********

It was as if an accused white-collar criminal, during jury selection for his bribery trial, had offered the judge a briefcase full of unmarked bills.

Or if a drug offender, taking the stand to defend himself against charges that he trafficked in narcotics, had tried to sell a brick of cocaine to the jury foreman.

But it really happened. Even as the House on Tuesday worked out the rules of the debate that will almost certainly see President Trump impeached by Wednesday night, Trump and his team continued to commit the very offenses for which he is being punished.

As the Rules Committee moved to the floor an impeachment article alleging Trump had abused his office by soliciting foreign help for his reelection campaign, Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, boasted to CNN that Trump is “very supportive” of Giuliani’s ongoing efforts to dig up political dirt in Ukraine that would help with Trump’s reelection campaign.

“We’re on the same page,” a defiant Giuliani, fresh from a dirt-seeking trip to Ukraine, said of Trump. “Just in case you think we’re on defense, we’re not.”

It was the latest stop on Giuliani’s media tour — of Fox News, the New Yorker, the New York Times and the Post — boasting about Trump’s active engagement in Giuliani’s attempts to get dirt on Joe Biden and to bulldoze, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s help, U.S. officials who stand in their way.

The moment Giuliani’s plane touched down from Ukraine last week, he said, Trump called him to ask, “What did you get?” He boasted that he forced out corruption-fighting ambassador Marie Yovanovitch because he needed her “out of the way.” He says he’s writing up a 20-page report full of the dirt he has dug for Trump.

And Trump doesn’t disagree. “He does this out of love, believe me,” the president said of Giuliani on Monday.

In response, Democrats must show their love, too — of the rule of law, the sanctity of elections and democracy itself — by impeaching this recidivist president. Trump continues to cheat in the 2020 election.

**********

Point made. We cannot trust the 2020 election, so why wait for it.