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 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 a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and 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.

Those of us who have watched the health care debate in Congress may be glad that it appears to be over.

But is it?

There have been name-calling and recriminations that don’t reflect well on the ability of those in Congress or the Presidential Administration to govern this country. That could mean that nothing will happen to improve health care policy.

The bad news started when the Obama Administration and Congress, then under control of the Democrats, imposed what came to be called ObamaCare, without one Republican vote.

There are those who forget that ignominious start as they have watched Republicans, now in charge of Congress and the Administration, commit the same mistakes made by the Democrats – a Republican plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare without one D vote.

If you want a democracy to work, this is not the way to achieve it.

Better if smart minds in Congress – yes, there are some on both sides of the aisle – would set aside differences, get into a room with a circular table and design a new health care system for this country.

One reason this would be difficult is that ObamaCare has become a new federal entitlement. People who receive care under a nearly unworkable system want to preserve that care. So any change prompts horror stories about people who would lose what they now have under this federal dispensation.

But, I say set that aside and design a new and better, middle-ground system.

For my part, I always have maintained that the best first step would be to require everyone to buy health insurance just as we require every driver to buy automobile insurance. Such a mandate might not fare well in Congress, but it would be a beneficial first step to real reform, giving everyone a stake in the outcome.

Many other tenets of reform could follow, but again for my part, I am more interested for now in the process, not the product. Get both sides in a room, use experts and come up with middle ground proposals.

Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and author of “Restoring Quality Health Care: A Six Point Plan for Comprehensive Reform at Lower Cost” ( Hoover Press, 2016), wrote a thoughtful piece in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago to set out three examples of policies that could be part of any new plan – if one actually can be developed by a Congress that tends now to be focusing on tax reform, not health care.

Here is a summary of Mr. Atlas’ suggestions:

• First, equip consumers to consider prices.

“Critics always claim this is unrealistic: Are you supposed to shop around from the back of the ambulance? But emergency care represents only 6% of health expenditures. For privately insured adults under 65, almost 60% of spending is on elective outpatient care. Likewise, nearly 60% of Medicaid money goes to outpatient care. For the top 1% of spenders—a group responsible for more than a quarter of all health expenditures—a full 45% is outpatient. Giving consumers an incentive to consider price when seeking such care would make a huge difference.

“ObamaCare moved in the opposite direction, shielding consumers from having to care about prices. Its broad coverage requirements and misguided subsidies encouraged bloated insurance policies, furthering the misguided idea that the purpose of coverage is to minimize out-of-pocket costs. When the insurer picks up nearly the entire tab, patients have little reason to consider costs, and doctors don’t need to compete on price.”

• Second, work strategically to increase the supply of medical services to stimulate competition.

“In large part, this means deregulation. Lawmakers should remove outmoded scope-of-practice limits on qualified nurse practitioners and physician assistants. That would enable them to staff private clinics that would provide cheaper primary care, including vaccinations, blood-pressure checks, and common prescriptions. In a 2011 review, 88% of visits to retail clinics involved simple care, which was provided 30% to 40% cheaper than at a physician’s office, while keeping patients highly satisfied.”

• Third, introduce the right incentives into the tax code.

“Today employees aren’t taxed on the value of their health benefits—and there is no limit to that exclusion. This creates harmful, counterproductive incentives. It encourages higher demand for care and minimizes concerns about cost.

“Similarly, ObamaCare’s premium subsidies and the tax credits proposed by Republicans artificially prop up high insurance premiums for bloated coverage that minimizes out-of-pocket payments. This prevents patients from caring about the bill, which reduces the incentives for doctors and hospitals to compete on price. If health-care deductions are maintained, the tax code should cap them and limit eligibility to HSA contributions and catastrophic premiums.”

Are these critical spokes in the health care wheel? Perhaps.

But, at least this indicates that there are steps worth considering before we end up with a single payer system, which is the next step liberals and the Democrats want for this country.

It may sound good, but it also would drain the federal treasury without injecting any of the kind of health care disciplines listed above.

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 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 a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and 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.

Anyone who has gone through the agony of putting down a dog knows how difficult it is.

For dog lovers, that is.

And, I am one, along with my wife Nancy.
About 10 days ago, we reached a consensus decision, with advice from others (including our friends and dog lovers, John and Rosemary Wood), that it was time to put down our dog, Hogan, who had been with us for more than 13 years.

We got Hogan, a pure-bred Poodle, when he was a puppy. We did so to give me a walking partner shortly after my “episode,” which is the word I prefer over heart attack…but it was that, a heart attack.

Through the efforts of my wife and my son, not to mention my cardiologist and all of the health professionals at Salem Health, I managed to survive. But I had to give up running and the game of squash, so the challenge was to find a walking partner.

Along came Hogan – and we settled quickly on his name after getting separate advice from our two children who both suggested the same name. It is after the great golfer, Ben Hogan, not, I add quickly, Hulk Hogan.

So, Hogan came into our lives and quickly became our best buddy.

We walked day-after-day in our neighborhood and Hogan loved the treks, especially when they involved the golf course where he thought it was his right to chase squirrels.

I also took him along when I played, though only at times when the course was not busy. Hogan would stay in my golf cart until I gave him permission to jump out and run around, an activity he loved. The squirrels were in danger!

About six years ago, Hogan came down with a disease called Cushings, which affects some dogs, some horses and some humans. The disease, which has few cures, involved a tumor in our dog’s pituitary gland.

Without a cure, we put Hogan on daily medication and he survived well, losing some of the early incontinence, which was one symptom of the disease.

But, by hindsight, Cushings was the beginning of the end for Hogan, though it took a few years to become a real problem. He lost his hearing and much of his eyesight. He also would tend to walk around in a circle, always moving around to the right, one evidence, our vet said, of the tumor that still resided in his brain.

Our view was that it was best for Hogan for him to go down, though I have to add that adjusting to the reality of his loss was far more difficult for me than I thought it would be.

The vet, Dr. Kris Hallden, who presided with us over the process of putting Hogan down, was very kind and compassionate in that process, for she loved Hogan, too, have treated his Cushings for years.

There is a hole in our home which now can only be filled by a new dog. So, we are looking for one who won’t replace our best buddy, but will, we hope, fill a similar spot in our lives.

Looking forward to a new relationship dominates my thoughts these days because it is one way to get past Hogan’s loss, even as I retain so many positive memories of his huge role in our lives.

The face on my phone is a picture of wife, Nancy, and Hogan, so, in that way, too, I remember him fondly.

I shared this story a few days with my best friend and former pastor, Morris Dirks, who lost his best buddy, Berkeley, several years ago.

Morris believes Berkeley is in heaven and, soon, he said, will be looking for Hogan, for he will be there, too.

And, yuou live on in my heart, too, best buddy!

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 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 a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and 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.

Most days, we hear new sad stories about international air travel, which it could be said by this old person, is getting more and more difficult.

My wife and I just returned from a cruise in the Mediterranean from Barcelona to Barcelona and, while the cruise was wonderful on the Oceania ship, the Riviera, the trip there and back was a nightmare.

Here’s how it went.

We started out by diving to the Portland Airport for a quick flight to Seattle. No problem, right?

But then, after we left the departure gate in Seattle, there was a mechanical problem on the airplace, so, obviously, it had to be fixed. Our plane wandered around on the ground trying to find an open gate, eventually finding a berth and the problem was fixed after about half an hour, allowing us to head off to Philadelphia.

We barely made our connection there – one reason we did was that the captain was late and that helped us — and then we were the 20th plane in line to take off — yes 20th!  That took an hour sitting on the tarmac.

But, we made it over the Atlantic and it was good to be on our ship in our stateroom where, finally, we could stretch and sleep.

Then, more bad news. We left Barcelona on Monday this week for an eight-and-an-hour flight to Newark.  Plus, the night before I got a very bad cold, so it was a tough trip all around for me and wife Nancy who had to sit next to me enduring my coughing bouts.  We got to Newark on time, then had to wait for a couple hours to catch our flight to Seattle — yes, Seattle again, not Portland.

That went okay, too, I guess, but it was more than six hours from Newark to Seattle and I was coughing all the way.

Once in Seattle at about 7:30 p.m., we hoped to be able to catch a Horizon flight down to Portland, but all of them were full until ours at 10:05 p.m.  Plus, once we boarded that plane, we had to wait a half hour for the pilot to arrive, again sitting on the tarmac with nothing to do but twiddle our thumbs.

We made it home at about 1 p.m., more than 24 hours after leaving Barcelona.

When I relayed this situation to one of my friends, he said I should count my lucky stars that I was not booted off the plane on one of these trips. Point made!

Another friend said that, given all of these problems with international air travel and others like them, he was not interesting in heading overseas anytime soon.

After being home for a couple days, still recovering from being sick, I agree – no more overseas trips for me. We’ll see if I make good on the pledge.

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 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 a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and 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.

The definition of fake news escapes me. Or, at least there could be several definitions.

It is a relatively new term these days and often is on our minds because President Donald Trump always talks about it.

I think there are several definitions.

1. THE LITERAL ONE

Fake news is distributed by many interests that, literally, make up stuff, then disseminate the material as attachments to websites, as news releases, and in other ways.

It is clearly material made up out of whole cloth, but, depending on the size of the distribution, it can affects public perceptions.

2. THE CONCOCTED ONE

This relates to what I consider to be staged events that are designed to gain publicity, either a picture on the front page of a newspaper or a few seconds on local TV news.

Examples are demonstrations on the front steps of the Capitol in Salem in favor of one thing or another, which are staged to gain news coverage. Consider demonstrators angling for more funds for a priority – say K-12 school funding.

To achieve the objective, what advocates ought to do is testify before Joint Ways and Means Committees considering how to allocate state general (and lottery) funds. Or, they should meet one-on-one with key legislators. Deliver advocacy messages without regard to whether they generate news – fake news – coverage.

The same can be said of public employee unions which demonstrate on Capitol steps or sit-in in legislative hallways to advocate for more for themselves. They may make the evening news, but not much else.

Standing around at the Capitol won’t get the job done.

I relayed this perspective a few days ago to a friend of mine who disagreed strongly, contending that those on the steps were expressing their Constitutionally-protected right of free speech.

Point made. But my point is that such demonstrations only produce short-lived news coverage, not results at the Capitol. So, in that way, to me, they constitute fake news.

3. THE “I DISAGREE WITH IT” ONE

This tends to be what Donald Trump means when he labels something fake news. If he disagrees with it, then it is fake.

4. THE “CAN YOU BELIEVE IT ONE”

Here, I cite the story from Iowa a couple days ago where Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley wrote an opinion piece for the Des Moines Register that led to speculation that he was starting a run for president.

Can you believe it?

I cannot. And I say this based on my several years of lobbying Merkley when he served in the Oregon House of Representative. He was one of the most sanctimonious legislators I ever have had the unfortunate reality to meet at the Capitol.

He always thought he was the most knowledgeable person in the room. He wouldn’t let anyone of us as lobbyists buy him lunch or a drink for fear we would think he owed us something in return.

Frankly, that offended me. For him to think that I was so crass as to believe in such a quid pro quo was way beyond reason. But it was Merkley.

When he defeated U.S. Senator Gordon Smith, I was sickened by the outcome. Smith landed on his feet as CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters while Merkley, incredibly, began serving in Senate where he has carved out a reputation, mostly, as a critic of Trump.

I rate Merkley-for-president as “fake news” because I cannot believe it is real.

In all of this, the best attitude is healthy skepticism. Don’t believe, at least at first blush, everything you read, hear on the radio or see on TV. Recognize that what you read, hear and see requires a sense of perspective. Form opinions on the basis of a variety of sources rather than just one.

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 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 a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and 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.

Remember the two solid public servants in this headline?

I do and my recall was heightened the other day when I read a piece by both that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

Baker, remember, served as Secretary of the Treasury and State in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. He went on to serve as chief of staff for President George Bush. Young was ambassador to the United Nations in the late 1970s, then went on to be elected mayor of Atlanta.

We need more Bakers and Youngs today.

Their piece in the Wall Street Journal, under the headline, “Identity Politics Are Tearing America Apart,” resonated with me as I have watched this country continue to go down into negative political discourse.

A couple key paragraphs set the tone for the piece:

“Somehow, the drumbeat of dissonance seems harsher today. America’s national ideal of “e pluribus unum”—out of many, one—threatens to become a hollow slogan. Jaded Americans are constantly confronted by a deluge of animus from their televisions and smartphones.

“The U.S. finds itself increasingly divided along lines of race, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual identity. Countless demagogues stand ready to exploit those differences. When a sports reporter of Asian heritage is removed from his assignment because his name is close to that of a Confederate army general, political correctness has gone too far. Identity politics practiced by both major political parties is eroding a core principle that Americans are, first and foremost, Americans.

“The divisions in society are real. So are national legacies of injustice. All can and must be addressed. Those who preach hatred should be called out for their odious beliefs. But even as extremism is condemned, Americans of good will need to keep up lines of civil, constructive conversation.

“The country faces a stark choice. Its citizens can continue screaming at each other, sometimes over largely symbolic issues. Or they can again do what the citizens of this country have done best in the past—work together on the real problems that confront everyone.

“Both of us have been at the center of heated disputes in this country and around the world. And there’s one thing we’ve learned over the decades: You achieve peace by talking, not yelling. The best way to resolve an argument is to find common ground.“

Baker and Young argue in favor of the following ways for Members of Congress and the Trump Administration – and, by extension, those who vote for them – to find common ground:

• First, Congress and the Trump Administration should agree to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government “for there is no benefit to shutting down the government simply because one side does not get all it wants from the legislative process.
• Next, leaders in Washington should focus on infrastructure projects that help the U.S. keep pace with its global competitors, particularly China.

“Floodwaters,” they say, “don’t distinguish between Republicans and Democrats. Nor do rotting bridges discriminate between whites and blacks” – a particularly apt description as the entire nation grapples with the ravages of hurricane Harvey.

• Next, leaders in Washington, D.C, should focus with “laser-like intensity” on the federal tax code which handcuffs American businesses.

Finally, Baker and Young advocate that Congress and the President do more than just act on these pressing issues, as challenging as that may be.

“They also need to set an example to all Americans. Politics is a contact sport, but leaders in Washington need to restrain their rhetoric and practice the lost art of compromise. They should stop pandering to the worst in us and appeal instead to what President Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.”

Let’s hear it for the good words from James Baker and Andrew Young and, if, by some change, we see middle ground emerge in Congress and/or the Administration, let’s applaud, not castigate, the result.

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 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 a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and 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.

In a post earlier this week, I commended President Trump and his Administration for preparing for the Harvey debacle and showing up to support Texans.

I suggested that it was a good stroke for Trump to show up personally, but to avoid the hardest-hit areas so his own presence would not make the work of first responders more difficult.

Since my post, I have read a number of pieces which faulted Trump, while he was in Texas, for talking only about responders and the government apparatus of responding rather than expressing sympathy for individual citizens hit hard by the tragedy.

At one point, in a campaign-style moment, he even marveled at the size of the crowed that showed up to see him.

There is perhaps a point in all of this because Trump is never good at expressing sympathy for others, perhaps an illustration of the Trump tendency to focus on himself as the most important person in any room or public space.

But, still, I think Trump deserves credit for his early response to this natural disaster, the first one in his Administration. Showing up mattered a lot, even if he didn’t always say just the right things.

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 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 a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and 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.

The Wall Street Journal: “We want to do it better than ever before,” Mr. Trump said about the relief efforts in Houston. “We want to be looked at in five years, 10 years from now, as this is the way to do it.” Mr. Trump made his remarks from an impromptu meeting room inside a firehouse in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Comment: At first blush at least, Donald Trump earned positive points for his response to the hurricane Harvey tragedy in Texas.

For one thing, “his” agencies, starting with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, appeared to respond in a way that illustrated coordination with local authorizes on the ground in flood-ravaged Texas.

For another, Trump himself showed up in Texas, but was careful, on his first trip, to avoid going to the worst hit areas so as not to aggravate conditions for rescue workers.

One critic, Ari Fleischer, press secretary for former President George Bush, thought Trump did not express true sympathy, but, to me, the criticism came across as hollow as Trump tried to buoy the spirit of those in the hard-hit area.

Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ):  “Mr. Trump frequently says things like ‘We are moving very quickly’ (referring to health care, on Feb. 27), ‘We are going to have tax reform at some point very soon’ (April 12), and that his administration’s infrastructure plan will ‘take off like a rocket ship.’

“Mr. Trump also often plays down the difficulty of legislating, as when he declared in March that repealing and replacing ObamaCare would be ‘such an easy one,’ and told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo in April that tax reform ‘will be easier than health care.’

“Blaming others may be cathartic for Mr. Trump, but it weakens the presidency and inhibits his agenda. Republicans responded to the president’s criticism with a flurry of statements in the Senate leader’s support. Legislators never like it when a chief executive—even of their own party—presumes to dictate who presides in their chambers.

Comment: Mr. Trump probably is not wise to take on those who should be his Republican colleagues in Congress. After all, he’ll need them as everyone faces the prospect of the need to increase the debt ceiling, as well as move forward on tax reform.

But Trump is not one to deal with the unavoidable complexity of legislation. He says what he thinks and then wants Congress to act immediately in line with his sentiments.

WSJ Editorial:  “Mr. Trump’s ego won’t allow him to concede error and he broods over criticism until he ends up hurting himself, as he showed again Tuesday by re-litigating his response to the Charlottesville violence. This is how he has achieved a 34 per cent approval rating, as even allies flee and his presidency shrinks in on itself.”

Comment: Trump’s huge ego often gets in the way of administrative achievements or prods him to believe that he has been hurt by the criticism and thus must respond in kind, if not over-the-top. Thin skin won’t work for a president.

New York Times: “Alongside a huge local, state and federal disaster response was an equally giant volunteer rescue effort that operated with little official guidance. State troopers referred requests for boats in some cases to the civilians. Burly volunteers traded information and resources with deputies and officers. At the Beltway 8 off-ramp that served as a boat ramp, recreational boats with painted images of Texas flags and scantily clad women on the sides shared the waters with police vessels. It was hard to tell, in the darkness, who was being paid to be there and who was not. Similar relief efforts have played a major role in scores of other natural disasters, but the scale of the one unfolding in Houston post-Harvey has involved hundreds of volunteers — perhaps thousands.”

Comment: It’s appropriate to close this post with this well-written summary of heroic volunteer efforts to help those in trouble in Texas. No doubt, once the full brunt of Harvey has been calculated, we’ll hear more about selfless rescue efforts.

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 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 a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and 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.

[This is at least a partial repeat of what I wrote a year or so ago. But the points bear repeating.]

Lobbying is an often-misunderstood vocation.

When many hear the word, they think of agents running around with bags of money to buy results. But, most of the time, that is not true.

Most of the time, lobbyists play their trade in at least a workmanlike fashion to achieve results for their clients.

When I began my career as a lobbyist, I had to explain to my mother what I did for a living. I resorted to two examples, hoping that one of them would make sense to her.

The first was that I was like an attorney. I had a client. That client paid me to represent its interests. My courtroom was the Capitol building, sometimes in a hearing room, sometimes in an office, sometimes in a hallway. Or, for me, sometimes at a lunch or on a golf course.

Anywhere where I could make an impression on a person who held public office.

My second example referred to a trader on a busy commodity-trading floor. Figuratively, I had to yell to get attention to make a sale. The example was meant to illustrate that I had to compete for time and attention.

A final example is one I have used more recently. It was that of a salesperson. As a lobbyist, I was not selling cars, houses, furniture or some other identifiable commodity. I was selling ideas.

The question was whether the buyer – a legislator, a member of Congress, a government agency official – would make a decision to buy what I was selling.

But, beyond these illustrations of what a lobbyist is, it is important to list credentials that make a good lobbyist. Here are several.

1.  A PERSONAL COMMITMENT:  A “YOUR WORD IS YOUR BOND” ETHIC

There is no more critical trait than this one. At a Wall Street Journal CEO Forum, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie put it this way:  “No one in this city (Washington, D.C.) talks to each other anymore.  Or, if they do, they don’t speak to each civilly.  They don’t develop relationships.  They won’t develop trust between each other.”

Governor Christie – admittedly he had his own credibility problems — could have added that, when officials talk, they don’t believe what each other says because there is no “your word is your bond” ethic.

If you say something, mean it. Stick by it.  If you have to change your perspective, alert all those to whom you previously spoke that you’ve had to change.  That, alone, will enhance your credibility.

2.  A PERSONAL STYLE:  PERSEVERANCE

Over my 40+ years at the State Capitol in Salem, I saw that those who arrived early, remained active during the day and stayed late often got things done.  In the sometimes-awkward nature of lobbying, finding legislators early and late often translated to an important minute or two – a minute or two to make a positive impression on behalf of a client.

Because lobbying is the business of making a series of positive impressions, finding time to make the first one is critical. Then, the others follow – early, mid-day or late.

3.  A PROFESSIONAL COMMITMENT:  CLIENT EXPERTISE INVOKES LOBBYING

In the lobbying business, I used to say that it didn’t matter what I thought or whether I agreed with a client. What mattered was what the client thought.

I had the good fortune to represent clients over the years with whom I generally agreed. Moreover, they often allowed me to react to their point of view, caring about what I thought as I prepared to carry their views to the Capitol.

I also was fond of saying that, with regard to a client’s interests, I was “an inch deep and a mile wide,” while the client was a mile deep in its understanding of its issues.

The point?  It is that a client’s perspectives, words and deeds are critical to representing that client’s interests, more critical than a lobbyist’s perspectives, words and deeds.  What a client wants or does not want from the legislative process should dictate what the lobbyist wants or does not want.

My approach was, first, to listen carefully to a client’s perspective, then apply my experience — how to get things done in a public policy environment — honed over my years in the process.

If a client wanted just a message carrier, I wasn’t particularly interested, as immodest as that sounds. I wanted to work with client to hone the message, then use the client’s expertise to achieve results.

4.  A COMMITMENT TO ACHIEVING SOLID ENDS:  FIND THE SMART MIDDLE

Getting back to the Wall Street Journal’s report of what Governor Christie said at the CEO forum, he issued a clear call for the benefits of compromise, which, after all, is the definition of politics…the art of compromise.

“When I’ve developed relationships with Democratic legislators (in New Jersey), it means you have to compromise at times; you don’t walk away with everything you want.  But, man, if I walk away with 70 per cent of my agenda, New Jersey’s 70 per cent better than it would have been otherwise.”

Well, you could quarrel with elements of that quote, but the point is clear:  Finding the smart middle is better than imposing an idea from either the right or left extremes.

Look no farther these days than the federal “Affordable Care Act,” which doesn’t appear to be so affordable.  It was imposed without any attempt to find the middle; only Democrats in Congress voted for President Obama’s proposal. Now, rather than learn lessons from that several-years ago debacle, Republican leaders in Congress tried to impose their will without working with Democrats.

The result? Health care policy in place today does not work as well as it could if reasonable persons from both sides were involved in finding the smart middle.

As a lobbyist, my goal was to get clients, first, to explain what they wanted and why, and, second, to be open to finding the smart middle.  That’s the way to get things done — in Salem or in Washington, D.C.

The issue is not winning or losing. It is finding middle ground.

What it takes to be an effective lobbyist relies, I contend, on the four qualities outlined above. It also takes a willingness to work with others to achieve results, for nothing ever happens in the lobbying world unless it revolves around a team.

For me, helping legislators draft good law was a purposeful pursuit.

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 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 a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and 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.

A recent column in the Washington Post made a lot of sense to me. The writer compared the theatrical actions of one Donald Trump to the World Wrestling Federation (WWE), long one of the best examples of appealing to an often gullible public (though, not me, I hasten to add).

Referring to the make-believe world of “professional” wrestling, the columnist, David Drehle, wrote: “It was a world that included one Donald Trump, the Ravishing Rick Rude of politics. Too little attention has been paid to Trump’s wrestling background, which was sufficiently broad that he reached the hall of fame a full four years ahead of Rude.”

The reference to Rude was to a character in the Wrestling Federation who made its own Hall of Fame.

More from the columnist: “Trump was among the first self-promoters to hitch a ride on impresario Vince McMahon’s WWE juggernaut. He sponsored two of McMahon’s early WrestleMania extravaganzas back in the Golden Age, steering them to the Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall and promoting them through his Trump casinos.

“But the peak of Trump’s career came in 2007, when he was written into the script of WrestleMania 23 as one-half of the Battle of the Billionaires, facing off against McMahon. Before a crowd of 80,000 at Detroit’s Ford Field, with a million more watching on pay-per-view, Trump played his role to the hilt, clotheslining McMahon and pretending to pummel him on the floor before shaving the promoter’s head as the fruit of victory.”

It is not an exaggeration to contend that the Trump presidency is right out of a WWE script. His brawling news conferences, his beefs with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and journalist Mika Brzezinski, the who’s-up-who’s-down chaos inside his White House, all bear the imprint of a man schooled on the melodramatic storylines of pro wrestling.

Here’s more:

• Trump is all show and little, if any, substance.
• Trump is all act, as if on a WWE stage.
• Trump doesn’t care whom he offends; in fact, offending appears to be the goal.
• To Trump, it’s all about HIS GOOD and EVERYONE ELSE’S EVIL.

Trump scripted his campaign as a series of professional-wrestling scenarios, complete with menacing foreigners, un-clever nicknames and plenty of trash talk. When the show got him elected, he doubled down, taunting world leaders and journalists alike.

You might say all politicians tell stories of conflict. But with Trump, it’s relentless. He takes us from bout to bout — Trump against China, Trump against Comey, Trump against Kim, Trump against Fake News — with a head-spinning undercard of Jared against Bannon and Spicy Spicer against The Mooch. Every policy choice, every personnel decision, every setback can be fodder for the next day’s script.

My question: Can we change the channel?

Indeed, pro-wrestling ratings have been dropping for years. Perhaps support for Trump, the bad actor on a stage, will drop, too. One can only hope.

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 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 a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and 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.

If you read Daniel Henninger’s most recent column, excerpts of which are reprinted below, you may be able to guess that Henninger, deputy editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal, is one of my favorite columnists writing today.

His latest contention: America’s political apparatus is steadily disconnecting from reality.

Politics is no longer about what elected officials can do to benefit the public or their own constituents. Nor is it about solving pressing societal problems.  Rather, it has become a series of end-game strategies where one sides seeks to embarrass the other. The motive is just that – embarrass the other side. Plus, the effect if this is aggravated because politicians are always running for office, not focusing on governing.

For me, all of this is a sea change from when I started as a lobbyist more than 25 years ago.  Back then, the objective of elected officials was to do a good job of doing the public’s business.

Here are excerpts from Henninger’s recent column: “Street politics has become the politics du jour. Groups form constantly in the street to chant slogans. America’s campuses live amid perpetual protest.”

To Henninger, the phenomenon that enables politics without purpose is the Internet. It is the organizing tool for fanatics on the right and left, including the nut-ball, Alex Fields, Jr., who drove into the crowd in Charlottesville, killing one person who won’t be the last casualty.

Henninger adds: “Fields makes me think of the lone-wolf jihadists here and in Europe who explode out of the general population in a homicidal rage. These are people who sit endlessly in front of a computer screen, brainwashing themselves with online propaganda until they snap to make a ‘political statement.’

“The Internet—websites, social media, message boards—is elevating political paranoia and delegitimizing normal politics.”

Henninger is right, but I also like what a letter to the editor writer said in the Wall Street Journal this week. “The reason these groups (white supremacists, etc.) need to bus people in from other states is because most of us wouldn’t waste our time participating.”

Kudos to the writer. I hope that the politics of division and hate doesn’t become the norm. Leave the fringes to those who like fringes as they try to grab headlines.

It is up to us, as voters, to elect persons who will return to what should be the main objective of politics – to find the smart middle on the issues that face us.

Rarely is the solution to any pressing problem found at the extremes. So, I say, don’t ignore Charlottesville or other right and left extremes, but learn from them and seek a more reasonable and reasoned future.