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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The headline on this blog is the main title of a book I just finished, the full title of which is:

The Man Who Ran Washington:  The Life and Times of James Baker, III.

So, this is my quick book report:  Read the book.  It is a good reflection on the work of an individual, James Baker, who brought what would be today, for me, a welcome relief from the intemporal tedium and almost innate dishonesty of Washington, D.C.

In a phrase, the welcome relief is this:  Value pragmatism over purity, as James Baker did over more than 40 years in public life.

Baker was able to avoid the unattainable pursuit of perfection in government in order to find the middle ground – the smart middle on issues ranging from ending the Cold War, to recovering from a recession, to brokering Middle East peace. 

The authors of book are two journalists, Peter Baker (no relation to James Baker), who writes for the New York Times, and Susan Glasser, a staff writer for the New Yorker.  They are husband and wife.

The book ought to be required for anyone aspiring for a career in government or politics.

For one thing, it is not some kind of glassy-eyed look at Baker.  It includes detailed looks at his successes and his failures.  He had both, though it should be said he produced more of the former than the latter.  For another, the two authors go far behind the scenes to produce even the notes Baker wrote as a reminder to himself about what to say when he squared off with other country leaders or the media. 

The inclusion of such notes lends a dose of credibility to the accounts.

Today, at 90 years of age, Baker is no longer in public life.  But his list of accomplishments is both long and arduous.

• He served two presidents – Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush– as chief of staff in the White House.

• He served as secretary of three Cabinet departments – Commerce, Treasury and State.

• In the latter, the State Department, he brokered the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union as he conducted shuttle diplomacy across Europe.

• He represented another Bush president, George Bush, in negotiations up to the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve Bush’s victory over Al Gore.

• And, in a last statesmanlike act, he sat by the elder Bush’s beside as he passed on.  Baker and Bush had been great and lasting friends dating back to the time when they played as tennis partners when both lived n Houston.  So, it was fitting for Baker to be the one to wish his friend a permanent goodbye.

In today’s tarnished approach to politics, there always are winners and losers as contenders sneer each other.  It is not likely again for a person like Baker to emerge, though we all can wish for it to occur.

Here are two passages from the book, which illustrate Baker’s credentials and abilities:

• “Delegate hunter, campaign manager, White House chief of staff, Treasury Secretary and Secretary of State, James Addison Baker III played a leading role in some of the most critical junctures in modern American history.  For a quarter of a century, every Republican president relied on Baker to manage his campaign, the White House, his world.  Baker brought them to power or helped them stay there through the momentous events that followed.  He was Washington’s indispensable man.

• Through it all, he was the archetype of a style of American politics and governance that today seems lost, an approach focused on compromise over confrontation, deal-making over disagreement, and pragmatism over purity.  He negotiated with Democrats at home and Soviets abroad, assembled the coalition that won the Gulf War, and brokered the reunification of Germany in the heart of Europe.  He was the “gold standard” among White House chiefs of staff, as virtually everyone put it, and went on to become the most consequential Secretary of State since Henry Kissinger.  In short, he was the un-Trump.

Even if there are no more Bakers, it is time for national leaders to find the wherewithal to choose pragmatism over purity – for the good of the country.