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.

When we know a Member of Congress has practiced well the art of middle-of-the-road politics – a lost art today – we should generate compliments for that member.

Columnist George Will did just that a couple days ago when he profiled retired Tennessee U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander.

I do, too.

Rather than just oppose over-the-top politics, we ought to commend those who play the game well.

Under this headline – “A welcome break from today’s repulsive, glue-factory politics” – Wills wrote this:  “Lamar Alexander’s new memoir of life in the Senate reveals a craftsman of politics and conservatism.”

Kudos to Alexander and Wills for providing an example of good politics during a time when see the exact reverse as Congress and the president fight with each other every day as if the goal is always winning rather than developing solid policy.

Here is how Wills started his column:

“In the mid-1940s, 4-year-old Lamar Alexander climbed a tree, fretted that he could not climb down, and called for his mother to help.  This was before the noun ‘parent’ became a verb, and before advanced thinkers decided that parenting is a science, or an art, or both.  So, his mother simply told him, ‘You got yourself up there, you can get yourself down.’ He did.

“He graduated from his free-range Tennessee childhood with a stock of gumption that propelled him through a public life spanning almost a quarter of the nation’s life, working with 10 presidents.  His career’s astonishing breadth began in 1963 as a staff member in Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s Justice Department.  Alexander, now 85, was a White House aide to President Richard Nixon, two-term governor of Tennessee, president of the University of Tennessee, education secretary under President George H.W. Bush, and a three-term U.S. senator.”

Alexander’s memoir, “The Education of a Senator:  From JFK to Trump,” tells the story of many achievements and a few disappointments, including two times when Alexander failed to win Republican presidential nominations.

With attribution to Wills, here are a few highlights about Alexander.

• Alexander’s “graceful but unembellished prose suits his penchant for understatement.” 
• The placidity of Alexander’s memoir is disturbed only by his immoderate dislike of the adjective “moderate” when applied to him.  He always detested the label because it could have implied he had a lazy streak.
• Alexander illustrated a key point in politics, at least in the past:  A functioning legislature includes negotiation and compromise.  They are inescapable.  Principles must be moderated to accommodate the inconvenient existence of others elected espousing different philosophies.
• Politics is neither a science nor an art.  It is a craft like carpentry. The dignity of a craft derives from the fact that it is acquired only through many years of repetitions.  Hence patience is a conservative virtue. Faux conservatives who proclaim on the Senate floor their principled refusal to compromise often achieve their only intended result:  Cable television and social media resonance.

More from Wills:

“Alexander’s political craftsmanship was honed during almost six decades of a public career whose diversity of offices filled is perhaps unmatched in American history.  Of the 2,019 people who have been senators, few earned as much respect as Alexander, and like Ted Williams, he homered in this last at bat.

“Near the end of his Senate tenure, he and two other senators met in the White House Roosevelt Room to try to persuade the mercurial president [guess who…yes, Donald Trump] to pressure some of his Senate acolytes to support a major bill, the Great American Outdoors Act.  Pointing to a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt, one of Alexander’s colleagues said to Trump:  ‘If you support and sign this law, you’ll be the greatest conservationist president since Teddy Roosevelt.’

“Trump leaned back, folded his arms, and looked into space.  ‘Wouldn’t you say ever?’ Trump asked.”

As for today, in retirement, Alexander is currently on a media and book tour promoting his memoir.  Plus, he is actively participating in interviews to discuss his six decades in public life and his experiences working with all of those 10 different presidents.

These days, we need more Alexanders.