Below is my column in the New York Post on how Madison’s famous objective of making “ambition … counteract ambition” in the constitutional system depends on the right type of ambition. Today, some members exhibit an ambition that transcends any institutional or constitutional interests. They act more like social media influencers than constitutional actors. One of the best examples is New York Rep. Dan Goldman, who vividly shows the distinction between partisan and institutional interests in a Madisonian system.
Here is the column:
In Federalist No. 51, James Madison famously wrote that “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” He believed that members of each branch would jealously protect their own institutions from the other branches.
Of course, Madison never met Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.). Goldman is an example of how the wrong type of ambition can destroy Congress if it becomes widespread among members.
This week, both Republican and Democratic members raised alarm over the disclosure that Special Counsel Jack Smith tracked the telephone calls by members of both houses of Congress.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) stated, “On the surface of it, it would strike me as a significant invasion of the right of Senators to conduct their jobs, so this is something that needs urgent follow-up.”
But one member rushed forward to dismiss such institutional concerns as much ado about nothing. Goldman attacked the victims as legitimate targets to help “confirm Trump’s effort to overturn the election.”
Goldman has long been viewed as the face of rage politics in Washington. He often uses hearings to attack witnesses and political opponents. His signature style involves heaping insults on witnesses and then immediately “reclaiming his time” to prevent them from answering his accusations.
Yet what makes Goldman so notable is his consistent denial of abuses by Democrats, no matter what the evidence may show. Goldman has made himself indispensable as someone who is willing to deny the obvious while attacking anyone who dabbles in reality.
If denial were an art form, Dan Goldman would be the Botticelli of the Beltway.
With the increase in political violence on the left, many are joining in condemning such violent groups on the left as Antifa.
Not Goldman. He rushed forward to deny that Antifa was a real group, demanding that people name just one person who claimed to be a member of Antifa. For those of us who have testified and written about Antifa for years, it was another bizarre moment. Groups like Portland’s Rose City Antifa are some of the oldest such groups in the country and extremists have routinely identified themselves as Antifa. Even far-left activists have acknowledged coordinated protests with Antifa groups.
Goldman’s denials can even leave CNN hosts gobsmacked. This week, Goldman challenged claims that there has been a significant increase in attacks on ICE officers. After attacking ICE officers as “violent,” he objected that people “keep talking about a 1000% upswing and all this stuff, I haven’t seen examples of that.” He was literally saying that when other networks were showing such attacks. As CNN hosts and guests described the attacks as “terrible,” Goldman dismissed the accounts of widespread attacks as little more than rumors.
If there is some partisan abuse that even Goldman would not dismiss, it is clearly not censorship. Goldman attacked witnesses seeking to expose the censorship system during the Biden Administration, again dismissing the suppression of opposing views.
It also clearly does not include influence peddling. Goldman was the main denier of Biden family operations that yielded millions. Even as former associates supported these accounts and communications confirmed the allegations, Goldman was still discarding the evidence and calling evidence of corruption as mere “niceties.”
Long after the Hunter Biden laptop was authenticated and major media organizations admitted that they were wrong in dismissing the evidence, Goldman continued to call it a “myth” and attacked those raising evidence that Hunter shook down foreign figures.
When Hunter defied a congressional subpoena while holding a mocking press conference outside of the Capitol building, Goldman defended him.
Despite this history, there was a lingering thought that the tracking of calls by members of Congress might finally prove a bridge too far — even for Goldman. After all, these records of past calls can expose whistleblowers, journalists and other citizens who are seeking help from their representatives.
Goldman, however, again went on X to blast members who objected to having their communications seized by the government — despite the fact that Democratic members also expressed concerns over the implications of this move.
Goldman attacked one of the victims, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and declared (in the ultimate act of transference) “you are shameless.” Goldman first attempted to parse the meaning of surveillance by noting that only the record of past calls and their times were seized (ignoring that such information conveys identifying information and details on communications). He then resumed his signature attack by claiming, “You laundered Russian misinformation in 2020 and then communicated with the WH on Jan 6.”
Putting aside accusations of Goldman as spreading disinformation in his denials, the targets of these orders include not just Johnson but eight other members.
While Goldman refuses to accept facts that show abuses by the left, he is quick to allege facts without a scintilla of support in attacking the right. Thus, when the home of Judge Diane Schafer Goodstein burned down in South Carolina, Goldman rushed to social media to blame Republicans for the fire. He demanded to know why there was no condemnation for “the extreme right” for the “arson.”
The reason is that some tend to wait for the facts to be established. Goldman did not even hold back until the preliminary findings of the fire department, which announced that there was no evidence of arson. The fire remains under investigation.
In the end, our system can withstand a few Goldmans in either party. Our constitution has survived Goldmans for centuries. He is the same guy that we have heard in every age of rage.
The true tragedy is that the voters of New York’s District 10 relish his form of politics. He knows his audience. Many voters want blind wrath and they found the perfect representative in Dan Goldman.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of the bestselling book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
This is not fair to the residents of his area: “The true tragedy is that the voters of New York’s District 10 relish his form of politics. He knows his audience. Many voters want blind wrath and they found the perfect representative in Dan Goldman.”
I used to live in Chinatown and that neighborhood has been unusually Republican for the last Decade.
https://nypost.com/2024/11/13/us-news/inside-the-only-manhattan-voting-district-that-favored-trump-in-the-2024-presidential-election-it-used-to-be-a-safe-city/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/05/nyregion/election-asians-voting-republicans-nyc.html
I have seen a lot of Jews openly representing Trump support as well. District 10 has many voters who are basically subsumed by the district map.
His behavior obviously shows that the district is ultra-safe for him, but it’s definitely not a monolith. Democrats absolutely tanked their Chinese support.
when can we remove the criminal judges!
It is beyond time!
You shouldn’t pick on Goldman. When you see him and hear him speak, it becomes VERY obvious what he is. He is the heir to a large fortune whose parents clearly knew that he was, shall we say, “slow” at best and paid to put him through boarding school, paid to buy him a fancy diploma, and paid to pass him through law school. He is one of those idiots who is too stupid to even know or sense how stupid they are. Its actually quite sad.
Nailed it!
Goldman, Schumer, “The Hak” Jeffries, Gillibrand, Hillary Clinton, Hochul, Cuomo, Mandami, AOC, Nadler, Mayor Eric Adams, Tish James, etc. I no longer recognize the State of my birth. I thank God that I was fortunate enough, and courageous enough, to move South many years ago.
I would not be good at testifying to congress. One of these idiots woud spend 10 minutes lying and insulting me and I would respond… I would probably end up in jail lol.
Anonymous,
I know, were I in that position, I’d remind those SOB’s who works for whom!
I was listening to Joe Pags last week, and he had the audio and video of an exchange between Pam Bondi and Sheldon Whitehouse. At one point, as he was “badgering” her on the 50 thousand that the FBI, allegedly, gave to Tom Holman, she simply told him that, rather than worry about that, he might concern himself with the legislation he was working on which, ultimately, would benefit his wife.
Pags indicated, for the listening audience, Whitehouse didn’t like that one bit. He turned bright red and started squirming and fidgeting.
Can you say, “Busted!”
Frankly more members of the House and Senate deserve that sorta treatment and calling out. They’re “public servants” not highly-paid miscreants, malcontents, and crooks who think they rule over us, think they’re better than us, etc. Some of these folks need to be B)itch-slapped!
A ‘perfect’ season for Washington’s sweet cherries turns sour because of deportation fears
Monica Nickelsberg
2025 Jun 18
KUOW
https://www.kuow.org/stories/a-perfect-season-for-washington-s-sweet-cherries-turns-sour-because-of-deportation-fears
So Washington cherries weren’t picked because the pickers didn’t arrive.
Blame ICE.
1. The story you linked to is from June.
2. ICE enforces immigration laws, it does not pick cherries. Blaming ICE for farmers not harvesting their crop makes no sense.
3. Japan has cherries and almost no immigration. Immigrants do not pick cherries for the Japanese cherry farmers. Why do immigrants pick Washington farmer cherries?
4. Cherry farmers could attract Americans to pick cherries if they paid higher wages.
We have always had people coming in from Mexico to pick all kinds of fruits and veggies. They were given temporary work permits. They finished their jobs, got paid, and went back to their home country. Now, suddenly, when the Dems need more votes, they cannot use this same method, but they need “illegal migrants.” To the Dems, nothing is more important than getting votes, not even the Constitution and the safety and security of the U.S. and its citizens.
Anonymous,
The reason American cherry farmers have illegal aliens harvest their crops is because they’re racists. After all, isn’t it the height of racism to assume all illegals are good for is harvesting crops, cleaning toilets, cleaning hotel rooms, etc?
Paying higher wages would go a long ways towards solving this problem, but then again, we Americans sing like birds — “Cheep, Cheep, Cheep!”
Hire others. Send an order to MIT to invent a cherry picker, sorted and boxed. That way no one will waste their time with it anymore. The cotton picker…automate farming at tax expense.
Censored! You’re probably eating horse meat must have been a bridge too far. 😏
Automate! Add in education, welfare, criminal justice, medical to the price of cherries.
Bet that’s the reason for censored? Those cherries are good for you. 😂
David B. Benson is blaming ICE because the criminal Illegal Aliens living by the tens of thousands in Democrat utopias like Portland, New York, Los Angeles, etc, are supposedly too busy picking his lettuce being grown in the cracks of those cities streets and sidewalks, to have the time to go pick cherries in rural orchards in Washington state.
they’re probably cleaning his nasty toilet too. After all, that’s all they’re good for, right?
ICE is not responsible for the hiring choices of farmers.
Every action by govenrment ALWAYS has winners and losers.
The RIGHT choice for government is to:
to the greatest extent possible NOT meddle in the market – that way the Winners and losers are determined by the free choices of people. You want solar – buy solar, you want an EV buy one – no subsidies.
That said – while our laws should impose the lightest influence on the market possible.
They MUST be enforced.
The only thing worse for freedom and prosperity than BAD influence by govenrment is inconsistent influence by government.
If you are in business today – you should not be hiring illegal aliens. Doing so is a risk to your business.
And as we see here to your clients.
Based on YOUR article – the cherry growers who can figure out how to harvest their crop will make a killing.
That is how the free market teaches us not to do stupid things – like break the law.
David, instead of crying over a few unpicked cherries, why not applaud Trump for uniting nations to end the Gaza war? Just months ago, your crowd, and likely you, were demanding a ceasefire. You got one. So why the silence now? You should be cheering Trump.
Yes, several factors affected cherry picking this year, but illegal immigration is only a minor part of it. Frankly, protecting American citizens ranks far higher for most civilized, educated people than ensuring cheap cherry prices.
Let me ease your mind: cherries aren’t essential for human health. The vast majority of cherries will still be picked. Prices may rise a bit, meaning workers will finally earn more. That’s a good thing. Right? Yet your complaint seems to be that higher wages for legal workers are somehow bad because they expose how illegal labor undercuts Americans. You should again be cheering Trump for his policies that bring higher wages to hard-working farmers. David, let’s hear it for Trump!
In the end, your argument amounts to nothing. Instead, you are proving that illegal immigration suppresses wages and steals jobs from Americans.
it seems to me from long observation that the Democrat Party has many such as Goldman in its ranks. He isn’t unique. I would say the most vocal and visible Democrats are cut from the same cloth as Goldman. I still wait for someone with stature in the party to denounce the lies but they go on amplified by their allies in the MSM. As the late, great Harry Reid replied when questioned about the lies he told about Mitt Romney, “They worked didn’t they”. Las Vegas named their airport after him which seems fitting.
tubwater,
And, honestly, doesn’t it all really come doen to that in the end?
Every year we bi**h, moan, and rail against negativity in political campaigns, yet it goes on, cycle after cycle. If lies and negativity didn’t work, politicians on both sides wouldn’t do it, simple as that.
A reminder that I ignore the Nony Mice.
Use your name or if you are too chicken, make up a pseudonym abd stick with it.
“I contradict myself? I contain multitudes.”
—- Walt Whitman
More like doubling down on stupid.
Try harder david
Who cares?
A reminder: nobody assigns you any credibility to begin with, lyin’ like a proud Biden as you do.
A second reminder: you can cosplay that you ignore them – while replying to some of them.
Your sniveling calls to ignore them calling you out for your lying doesn’t mean anyone is going to follow your demands.