Perspective from the 19^th Hole 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.

I toyed with opening a new department under my management.  But, upon reflection, no.

Five departments are enough – the Department of Pet Peeves, the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, the Department of “Just Saying,’ the Department of Inquiring Minds Want to Know, and the Department of Words Matter.

See, I already have enough to manage.

So, here are bits and pieces, without a new department:

• BLANKET PARDONS:  Various commentators are saying that President Joe Biden should not issue blanket pardons to protect certain officials from Donald Trump vendettas.  That would be good advice if we were dealing with a sane U.S. president.  But, with Trump and his minions, we are not.  So, I say to Biden, Biden protect officials who have not broken the law.’

So does Jennifer Rubin writing in the Washington Post, as follows:

“Since President Biden began seriously considering an amnesty for people at risk of retribution from President-elect Donald Trump and his FBI pick (who comes armed with an enemies list), the pearl clutching and myth-spinning about pardons have spread.  Biden should pay attention to history and case law, not misinformed critics.

“The first myth:  A broad amnesty would unprecedented, an intrusion into the rule of law.  That is categorically false.  More than a dozen presidents dating back to George Washington have granted amnesty to a defined, large group of Americans.

• MIDDLE GROUND:  Where is the “middle ground” in politics?  It appears to be lost.  Two left-wing senators, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, went over-board last week by suggesting that they understood why someone would murder a health care executive. 

Say what?  Both Warren and Sanders deserve condemnation for saying that disagreements explain away insane actions like murder.

So, it is not just Trump and his acolytes who practice disagreement and revenge.  It is others on the left, which raises my question again – how about both sides trying to find middle ground.  Pardon my suggestion, for I suspect it may not be possible.

• LEAVING PRO GOLF AT THE RIGHT TIME:  On a more positive note, consider this about LPGA player Ally Ewing from one of my on-line golf magazines: 

“As far as decisions go, retiring from the LPGA wasn’t a hard one for 32-year-old Ewing.  To an outsider, it certainly looked strange, choosing to walk away in the midst of one of her best seasons on tour.  Ewing was No. 18 in the world when she made the announcement.   But this is how the small-town Mississippi player drew it up.  She wanted to go out playing good golf.”

And, in an interesting footnote to this, here is what she said: “As soon as I decided this was the year,” said Ewing, “I felt a peace and stillness. I felt like that was God’s way of saying, ‘I’m with you in this.’”

• AND THIS FROM ANOTHER ADMIRER OF FORMER OREGON GOVERNOR VIC ATIYEH:   The other day my wife and I attended an event at Capitol Manor, a “continuing care retirement center” we have signed up for, though we won’t go there for a few years.

At the event, a resident stopped me in the hallway and struck up a conversation.  At one point, after I said I had worked in and around state government for about 40 years, he asked if I knew Vic Atiyeh.

Of course I said “yes,” having worked for Oregon’s last Republican governor for a few years.

Turned out the resident knew Atiyeh, too, having seen him at an event in St. Helens, Oregon, many years ago where he learned that Atiyeh loved to fly fish.  So, this resident began tying flies for the former governor and gave him new ones every year.

A great connection on the fly, pardon the play on words.