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.

For some reason, I have been thinking lately about impossible stuff in politics.  Perhaps that is because there are so many options.

Or, I also have time on hands, so I have to spend it some way.

So, as is my style, I have come up with my own list.

• Imposing a gag order on the big-mouth, Donald Trump, and expecting it to hold.  Or, finding a way to enforce it when he goes off.

• Finding qualified attorneys who would choose to represent Trump.

Note these excerpts from a story that appeared in the Washington Post, written by a member of its Editorial Board:

“In Fulton County, Georgia, three of former President Donald Trump’s lawyers — Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis — have now pleaded guilty to crimes in service of Trump’s scheme to overturn the 2020 election and stay in the White House.

“All three have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the sprawling state RICO case against Trump.

“Two other Trump lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, still face criminal charges in the Georgia case. They, along with Chesebro and Powell, have also been identified as unindicted co-conspirators in the related federal prosecution of Trump, which will probably benefit from the guilty pleas in Georgia.”

• Finding legislators in Congress who will follow this ethic:  They need to EARN trust, rather than just say they deserve it.
  
  
• Finding legislators in Congress who will work to identify middle-ground solutions instead of bolstering their own re-election campaigns.  The state of the “permanent campaign” argues against good government.  The U.S. House is proving it every day.

• Finding legislative leaders in Congress who would have the chops and credentials to lead others to middle-ground solutions.  There are few of these leaders, if any, left these days.

Enough for now.