Congress, Constitutional Law, Politics

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Government: Rep. Goldman Insists that the Country is Safe in the Hands of Others

Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, wrote “The President [of the Galaxy] in particular is very much a figurehead—he wields no real power whatsoever. […] His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it.”  This week, Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY) seemed to be taking the Hitchhiker’s Guide as a guide for government. When asked about the alarming physical and mental decline of President Joe Biden, Goldman suggested that it really does not matter. In responding to a call for Biden’s removal under the 25th Amendment, Goldman suggested that the Republic is safe because it is safely in the hands of people around Biden. It is an argument that flips the 25th Amendment on its head and embraces the idea of a figurehead president.

After the Hur report was released noting the diminishment of the President’s faculties, Goldman was one of the most vocal in shouting the Special Counsel down. He went public declaring that the President is “sharper than anyone I’ve spoken to” on public policy issues.

He has continued brushed away the growing calls for President Biden to step aside as incapable of serving another four years. Indeed, some are calling for an investigation into whether he can carry out the duties of his office until January 2025.

“So, let’s not just focus on Joe Biden here. Let’s focus on the people around him, the administration, the policies, and most importantly, the appreciation and protection for the rule of law and our democracy that Donald Trump, every single day, has vowed to take down.”

He added that Biden is “vibrant” and that “the reality is that Joe Biden has surrounded himself with an incredibly capable team with almost no turnover.”

Other Democrats have attempted to avoid the manifest confusion and infirmity of the president. This includes Democrats who repeatedly called for formal action to remove former President Donald Trump under the 25th Amendment, including Reps. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.; Jamie Raskin, D-Md.; Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

However, it was Goldman who, as usual, came up with the most vertigo-triggering spin.

The 25th Amendment was designed to specifically avoid a figurehead presidency where family or aides perform critical functions of the office. That was indeed the concern with presidents like Woodrow Wilson when a stroke left him incapable to function as president. His wife Edith hid the truth from the public and the Congress as she and others carried out his functions.

He also had “an incredibly capable team” around him, but they were not elected president.

In the meantime, the media is still struggling to explain to the public why they did not disclose the President’s condition earlier while promulgating the “cheap fake” narrative. For weeks heading into the debate, media outlets repeated the claim that videos showing Biden’s confusion were false and misleading. Some are now reportedly admitting that they did not want to confirm “right-wing media” accounts — an admission of shaping the news for political purposes.

The greatest threat to President Biden may ultimately be the political calculus. For most of these members, their loyalty to Biden ends at the point that he endangers their own hold on power. A couple dozen members are reportedly preparing a letter calling for possible removal in the hope that they can replace Biden with someone who has a better chance of beating Trump. It is no easy feat, but Democratic operatives are furiously working out the complications under federal election laws and state laws.

In the meantime, the 25th Amendment process is looming. More citizens may become convinced by what Pelosi said about then President Donald Trump: “Congress has a constitutional duty to lay out the process by which a president’s incapacity and the president of any party is determined…A president’s fitness for office must be determined by science and facts.”

280 thoughts on “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Government: Rep. Goldman Insists that the Country is Safe in the Hands of Others”

    1. “The first excerpts will air on “World News Tonight” and then the interview will be broadcast in its entirety in a prime-time ABC network special on Friday evening at 8 p.m. ET.”

      So, it will not be live.
      Who is asking the questions? Stephanopoulos? Or the Biden campaign?
      Will it be edited?

      1. Will the puppeteers provide the questions – or will Steph provide the questions to the puppeteers in advance? Will biden be schooled about how to respond to questions, whatever their source. (All too well, I recall Donna Brasil providing mrs. bill with the questions to be asked in one of the debates.) Will biden have his cheat sheets/cards with him? or will there be a teleprompter out of range of the camera? Who will edit the audio and video into what voters see and hear – Steph? the puppeteers? Because biden admitted to doing nothing of note after 8pm … will the audience be informed of the local time at which the interview commenced and ended? if a break was taken during the interview? ETC ETC

    2. At least if Biden sits down and Stephanopolous stands they will then be on the same level. He will still come up short, no matter what he does.

    1. More like Gas bag Goldman. He knew, so does Schiff, Pelosi, Sukwell and all the other Corrupt Democrats scum.

  3. The 25th Amendment may be of little or no consequence as the silver spoon from New York suggests, but of the people around Joe Biden there is surely one or more vying for and acting in a so called leadership role. The question becomes who are they and the concern then is what appreciation do they have for the rule of law and democracy? Let us not forget that ever since the assassination of JFK presidents have been wary of the darkest parts of the Administrative State. It has hampered their resolve, circumscribed their power, and corralled their leadership. We should expect nothing other from whomever is running the Biden figurehead now.

    1. Ron A. Hoffman,
      Edwardmahl made a comment about those who rule from anonymity or group rule. I think that would be more like it than an actual single person calling the shots. Weak people seem to take more comfort if they have a group mind hive to make decisions.

  4. In history, “Petticoat Government” is not uncommon. For example, it has been said that in Ottoman Turkey, the Harem was sometimes the “power behind the throne.”
    https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Internal_Power_Struggle [sec 8]. This often led to mistakes, such as the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, a disaster that started the unraveling of the Ottoman empire. http://www.theottomans.org/english/campaigns_army/campaigns_3.asp
    Such mistakes did not happen because women cannot rule wisely. Rather, there are at least two reasons. First, anonymity leads to bad decisions because the hidden decison-maker knows that she will not be known to, and thus not held responsible by, the public or history. Second, group decisions are generally bad because no one “owns” the decision. The blame for a disaster can be attributed to the group.

    1. edwardmahl,
      A long time ago, in a different life, I saw exactly that, rule by committee. And it was in our own government. A disaster is right.

  5. Sure, regimes are great, dude. 🙄🙄 The modern left has become the force we must stop. Let’s do it at the polls, please, before we have no other recourse. It is clear: the modern left hates our balance of power and will never, ever relent in destroying it. I have thought Britain was toast for many years; modern labour is going to make them into the object lesson of all object lessons. Let us not follow suit. That island will be in flames in a year or two. Demand accountability in November.

    And really: at this point the trolls are abusing our hosts’ leniency on a scale that is hard to quantify. Can we please address it?

    And PS – loving the book and ordering it for family members. We can make it through this, but we are going to have to be proactive and actually try. Head in the sand time is over.

    1. PPS – the troll issue is actually a tactic; they are doing this on purpose to incite action, and if the mods take that action the cries of censorship from the trolls will be off the charts. They are despicable and insidious, this has already been attempted with Musk etc., and we have to do the right thing, anyway. Classic, socialist, sabotage. Do not relent, because they won’t, not ever.

  6. What is going to be truly great about this election if they stick with Biden, if you vote for Biden, you voted for a dementia patient. If you voted for Biden, you voted for Jill and Hunter.
    NBC is reporting that Hunter is now sitting in on meetings with Joe’s senior staff and advisors.
    Hey! Wally! You kept saying you are not voting for Hunter when the good professor brings up a Hunter related column . . . are you?

    1. The reply is general

      The dems and the entire puppet government including all 3 branches are either suicidal or murderers. It’s a terrible mistake. They have no free will. Because it’s deep state it will proceed and the comeuppance will be God’s.

      So be it.

  7. That seems to be the new Mantra. Someone I know on FB responded to another’s comment about Joe falling asleep during Cabinet meetings. She stated not to worry since there were others around him that could hear for him. All along the democrats have been stating he was fine. Okay, so stay with the date you brought to the dance. Whoever is in the wings may be worse.

  8. Mr. Anonymous like Mr. Goldman should be given a one=way ticket to Gaza City! Two very despicable human beings. I think the former should be banned from this site. The last entry serves no purpose other than prevent others from reading and submitting comments. That is not free speech. Otherwise I could not care less what garbage he emits from his retarded brain

      1. Annoying and stupid people come with the turf. But once they employ actions to disrupt others from opining or speaking the views, then they cross a line. Again he can write anything he wants on this site short of inciting violence, but filling a comment with hundreds of “?” for no other reason than to make it difficult for others is beyond the pale in my view. Classic progressive: a little authoritarian wanna be thug. Probably an unemployed graduate of one our second rate universities with a “degree” in political “pseudo” science. If he is employed, I would wager it is in the public sector!

        1. My guess is that it is not employed in any sort of job where it has to interact with people in a meaningful way. Possibly retired for mental health reasons. Maybe on disability. People like this can not be cured, as a practical matter, and their “needs” are going to come out in different ways if they are frustrated in one endeavour. If it is banned from here, which it should be, it will find another website or some other way to come back here. Failing that, it will find a new area for its mental disorder to present. It has little choice but to act as it does, and probably has severe OCD, in addition to other co-morbidities. While annoying, it is fascinating to watch it unashamedly unravel in public. Nuts has gots to be nuts.

  9. OT but related, The HuffPost has a opinion piece calling for the Biden campaign to actually use AI.
    “After the president’s dismal debate performance, he noted that he ‘might not walk as easily or talk as smoothly as I used to.’ AI could help with this.”
    “Given the president’s concerning performance last week, it’s time for the Biden campaign to consider leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to effectively reach the voting public,”
    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/opinion-joe-biden-campaign-ai_n_668482b9e4b038babc7d56f2#:~:text=AI%2Dgenerated%20content%20can%20be,opportunity%20for%20more%20effective%20communication.

    That is right! Use AI to effectively reach the voting public.
    All us normal people would call that lying to them.

  10. Who knew the Sirius cybernetics corp would accurately describe Joe Biden. According to Douglas Adam’s book, the Sirius cybernetics corp describes a robot as “Your plastic pal who’s fun to be with”. Who knew?

  11. So Goldman agrees that Biden is not capable of running the nation so those around him must do it for him. Somehow he thinks that that is a ringing endorsement for Joe Biden. It proves that you can be a Democrat even if you’re one brick short of a load. Wow. He admits that Biden isn’t capable of handling the load so the unelected can do it for him. You just can’t make this stuff up.

    1. TiT,
      That is the amazing part of all of this. They actually think THAT is a good defense and a good optic.
      The goods news is, is there are more and more Democrats seeing the reality for what it is, and calling them out on it, Democrat Congressman Peters: Biden campaign response to debate ‘arrogant’
      “We want to know what [the Biden campaign’s] plan is to win this election and turn these numbers around,” says Rep. Peters. “If they don’t have a plan, then I think we have to move in a different direction.”
      https://justthenews.com/government/congress/democrat-congressman-biden-campaign-response-debate-arrogant

      Meanwhile, Democrat donors are pulling their money from the Democrat party until they replace Biden,
      “I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket. This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high,”
      — Disney heiress Abigail Disney on CNBC.

  12. For anyone who doesn’t think with his glands, this election isn’t about Biden vs Trump. It’s about Deep State vs Constitution.

    The Democrat base wants disposable emperors ruled by a Deep-State shogunate. Democrats want to be ruled by a revolving-door bureaucracy that can scapegoat disposable politicians and keep doing whatever the Left wants, no matter how asinine.

    This potato-head disaster of a Presidency was a trial run for the above. How’s that working out for you?

    1. “Fo r anyone who doesn’t think with his glands, this election isn’t about Biden vs Trump. It’s about Deep State vs Constitution.”

      Diogenes, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Our choice is between a totalitarian dictatorship (Deep state run by committee) and a Constitutional Republic run by a democratically elected President (Trump). It’s crucial that we and our leftist friends understand these political systems to make an informed decision. Dictatorship or freedom.

      1. “When elected I will be a dictator…”

        Or something similar from The Donald.

        1. What he actually said,
          ‘You are not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said, ‘No, no, no, other than Day 1.’ We are closing the border and we are drilling, drilling, drilling. After that I am not a dictator, OK?”

          Ohhh! One day. Closing the border and drilling. Sounds oh so scary dictatoriship. What do Americans want? A secure border. Energy independence and a booming energy economy.

          1. When Biden issues an executive order he’s issuing an executive order. When Trump issues an executive order he’s being a dictator. See how it works?

            1. “When Biden issues an executive order he’s issuing an executive order. “

              Upstate, when Biden issues some of his executive orders, he issues an execution order. Americans beware, for he is responsible for many American deaths and rapes, including children.

          1. So since Biden broke immigration law allowing these POS killers in to our country as an official act, is he immune in civil court for the wrongful deaths of all these people being killed?

        4. David, Trump followed the Constitution. Biden acted like a dictator, weaponizing the DOJ and Intelligence agencies. He is willing to use his administration to coordinate legal attacks against an ex-president and place mothers protecting their children on FBI lists. This desire to corrupt the mission of the FBI extends to watching the Catholic Church. Biden is a failure, and his administration is despotic. I am surprised that you are unable to attach facts to your comments.

      2. S. Meyer,
        Seems to me, our leftist friends would or are embracing dictatorship. As long as they think it is their dictatorship.

        “What sickens me about left-wing people, especially the intellectuals, is their utter ignorance of the way things actually happen.”
        ― George Orwell, A Life in Letters`

      3. S. Meyer–what are you talking about–the “totalitarian dictatorship” is what Project 2025 is all about–From “Wikipedia”:

        “Project 2025 envisions widespread changes across the government, particularly economic and social policies and the role of the federal government and its agencies. The plan proposes taking partisan control of the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Commerce, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), dismantling the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and sharply reducing environmental and climate change regulations to favor fossil fuel production.[7][12] The blueprint seeks to institute tax cuts,[13] though its writers disagree on the wisdom of protectionism.[14] Project 2025 recommends abolishing the Department of Education, whose programs would be either transferred to other agencies, or terminated.[15][16] Funding for climate research would be cut while the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would be reformed along conservative principles.[17][18] The Project urges government to explicitly reject abortion as health care[19][20] and eliminate coverage of emergency contraception under the Affordable Care Act.[21] The Project seeks to infuse the government with elements of Christianity.[6] It proposes criminalizing pornography,[22] removing legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,[22][23] and terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs,[3][23] as well as affirmative action.[24] Some conservatives and Republicans have criticized the plan for its stance on climate change[25] and foreign trade.[14] Other critics believe Project 2025 is rhetorical “window-dressing” for what would be four years of personal vengeance at any cost.[26] The project’s authors also acknowledged that most of the proposals would require the Republican Party to control both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.[26] Other aspects of the plan have recently been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and would face court challenges, while others still are norm-breaking proposals that might survive court challenges.[27]

        The Project recommends the arrest, detention, and deportation of undocumented immigrants living in the United States.[28] It promotes capital punishment and the speedy “finality” of those sentences.

        “Partisan control” of government agencies, especially the FBI and DOJ, IS TOTALITARIAN. Reversing 50 years of progress in human and civil rights IS TOTALITARIAN. Using the federal government to get “retribution” IS TOTALITARIAN. Some of the proposals of 2025 have already been ruled unconstitutional–but they don’t care–“sue us”. Rounding up people seeking asylum and putting them in concentration camps IS TOTALITARIAN.

        1. Gigi, you are so naive and ignorant. On political issues, Wikipedia spins so much that reading it is worthless except for the uneducated, who know nothing and drown with their life vest.

          https://www.heritage.org/press/project-2025-publishes-comprehensive-policy-guide-mandate-leadership-the-conservative-promise

          “Among the recommendations in this edition:

          Restore the integrity of the Department of Justice to ensure accountability by giving the FBI a hard rest, ensuring consistent litigation decisions, and enforcing immigration laws.
          Solidify our border by restructuring the Department of Homeland Security and its priorities in ways that streamline the immigration process, end unclear immigration visas, and create a more secure immigration process.
          Break up the Department of Education to strengthen education freedom, enhance parental rights in education, and protect taxpayers from student loan “forgiveness.”

          Do you wish to become smarter? First, recognize the Mandate for Leadership is a book that has been shaping minds since 1981. There are several points made in what I copied from the recent recommendations. Argue those recommendations. It is your chance to prove that you know something. If you run away, you ditch a valuable opportunity to grow and learn, meaning your name becomes synonymous with stupid.

  13. J H Kunstler has another great article out today. Here is an excerpt:

    “. . . the Democratic Party, and its public relations arm in the mainstream media, had descended into florid mental illness. Everything they stood for post-World War Two flipped to its opposite. Suddenly, they were against free speech. They weren’t coy about it. They just made-up some new bullsh!t about free speech being “hate speech.” Similarly, they were against a free press. They went along with all the misinfo / disinfo bullsh!t the government cooked up and supported its role in suppressing the news. They were no longer anti-war, the party-of-peace. They were now pro-segregation and pro-discrimination (white people need not apply) according to Critical Race Theory (a childishly sketchy doctrine). Most of all, they were no longer skeptical of anything that the leviathan establishment wanted to do, including abridging the liberties of American citizens.

    Then there was the campaign to use the most powerful human instinct, sexuality, as a weapon to disorder the minds of American children, leading even to the mutilation of their bodies — a program that unmistakably tipped toward genuine evil, suggesting that actual psychosis lay behind the Cluster-B crypto-Marxism used to justify it.

    “Joe Biden” was fine with all of that, and the news media was fine with “Joe Biden” and whoever was using him as a front. Of course, it was evident during the 2020 campaign that “Joe Biden” was not up to a job as demanding as Chief Executive of the US government — and that was even apart from the dense criminal web of influence peddling discovered around him and his family, which the news media ignominiously ignored. But now the years have gone by and there’s no hiding “Joe Biden’s” rather gravely diminished mental abilities.

    Last week’s debate gave away the game. It had the effect of finally turning off the gaslight that the news media has been shining over the republic lo these many years. They can no longer pretend that this president is anything close to okay in body and mind. They can’t annul the gaslighted public’s delayed realization that they’ve been subject to a concerted program of deliberate lying for a long long time.

    So now, inveterate pretenders and liars, such as Jake Tapper of CNN and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times — and many others — have to pretend that they were innocently duped into supporting all the turpitudes of the Democratic Party / Deep State axis-of-evil. It is really hard to imagine that they can successfully rehabilitate their reputations. They have done immense harm to our country. “

  15. If the Russian soldiers leave Ukraine, then the fire will cease….there’s your ceasefire.

    1. If Biden the butcher or whoever is running this war, would allow the Ukrainians and their Russian counterparts to meet in a third party nation, like they did in Istanbul in the spring of 2022, and the Ukrainians and Russians agree to a cease fire and then proceed to talk peace, there is your ceasefire.
      But Biden will not allow that. It would make him look like a failure, more so than he already has.

      1. exactly. The war in ukraine is purely biden’s folly. he and his death cult have blood on their hands, the peoples there want peace, and he simply keeps enriching his peeps. the dems/regime is a POS.

    2. NATO is expected to tell the Ukraine they are too corrupt to join NATO at the NATO summit in Washington DC next week.

  16. It’s the DNC Stupid!
    They have made the Democratic Party irrelevant.
    By design, They want the Republicans to take the blame for this mess and also have them clean it up.
    In addition, they will be being perched for the next 4 years to Spin-Spin-Spin crazy ruminating rhetorical,
    to guise the coming fleecing of America.

    The DNC knows it’s over – Biden is just a place-holder come November 5th 2024.
    What remains to be seen is the Lame Duck parting office gifts; Bills, Agreements, Pardons, and Commuted paperwork to literally receive a rubber-stamped Presidential Signature by Monday, January 20, 2025 Inauguration Day.

  17. Hopefully the blog moderator or someone will end the current juvenile interruption’s.

    1. I figure Darren is on vacation or something, and the cyber-stalker is running free. In an interesting fashion, we can observe how the mentally-disordered devolve. Here is what some of these people, such as our resident ding-a-ling, are like:

  18. I said is 2016 that electing Donald Trump is the closest we’ll likely ever get to electing Zaphod Beeblebrox as President.

  19. Goldman’s comment may have some merit if his staff was great. It’s not. Most are strident leftist advocates, or at best naive politicians. The proof is simple when considering the continuation of these silly regulations they keep spewing forth so close to the election.

  20. Some Democrats have finally come around to the realization that Ari Emanuel, the CEO of Endeavor, recently said that Biden should step down and, “but we’re in f–k city.”
    Democrats all across the country are in a panic.
    And yet there are those fools, like Goldman, who continues to double down on the biggest scandal of the Biden admin: A mentally incompetent senile old man is supposedly the president. And now we are supposed to just ignore that and focus on the people around Biden?
    How about, no.

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