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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 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 issue of classified papers in roiling Washington, D.C. these days, with apparent offenses by both President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump.

The offences appear similar, but it strikes, from my post in La Quinta, California, far from the action in D.C., that are important differences between the two cases.

I don’t often agree with Washington Post columnist Mark Thiessen, the one who often goes after President Joe Biden in the Post, but this time he had a point when he wrote under this headline:

“If Trump’s classified document mishandling was ‘irresponsible,’ so is Biden’s .”

Both Trump and Biden were irresponsible about how they handled classified documents.  That much is patently clear.

What isn’t so clear are the differences between the two cases, though a few reporters from the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal have emphasized those differences.

My take:

When classified papers were found at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago abode, he bridled at every point.  He and his minions obfuscated at every turn and are still doing so as they hope bluster will obscure the real fault.

When classified papers were found at Biden’s old offices or at his home, he and his lawyers immediately turned over the papers to the National Archives.  Initially, it’s true that he and his lawyers may have waited a bit long to outline the problem, but, still, when they did, there was no attempt to blunt the truth.  No obfuscation.

It is critical that Attorney General Merrick Garland ensures that investigations of Trump and Biden, both under the jurisdiction of independent prosecutors, proceed justly.

But, given the record so far, the Post says “the differences between the Biden case and the Trump case appear glaring, particularly in how staff handled sensitive documents and their return to the proper authorities.”

Thiessen wrote this:  “Trump’s team dragged its feet to the point of possible obstruction; the Biden team appears to have promptly, voluntarily, and fully cooperated.  Further, the size of the two mounds of paper are markedly different.  Trump’s papers had to be loaded into boxes.  Not Biden’s.

“Let’s be clear:  None of this absolves Trump, who had hundreds of classified documents in his unlawful possession, including documents marked ‘HCS’ — a control system designed to protect intelligence information derived from clandestine human sources.  This is extremely serious.  And unlike Biden, whose lawyers immediately turned over the documents to the National Archives, Trump had to be forced to relinquish those in his possession.”

But, properly, Thiessen faulted Biden, too.

Mishandling of classified documents is a serious violation of federal law.  It does not matter whether it is fewer than a dozen, as in the Biden case, or hundreds as in the Trump case.  The Espionage Act states that anyone who, “through gross negligence, permits classified information to be removed from its proper place of custody … Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.”

Both Biden and Trump should be held to account for these violations.  And the punishments if they exist?  The one for Trump should be tougher than the one for Biden.

There is no innocence here.