February 15, 2008

Notes on Clemens/McNamee

Having had a few days to digest this, a few observations on Wednesday's hearing:

- Sure, McNamee is a sleaze, and sure, he's got credibility problems. But based on all the information that is presently available, I find it nearly impossible to believe that Clemens did not use steroids or HGH. We're really supposed to believe that his best friend- and HIS WIFE- used HGH but Clemens, the one who we have the most reason to suspect, did not? Of course he did. And now he can only hope that McNamee's credibility is efficiently shot that Clemens can walk away indictment-free.

- Still- if Clemens is in fact lying, how many times did he perjure himself in one day? It might be an all-time record.

- When was the last time you went to a barbeque/pool party, and worried that it might come up in Congressional hearings ten years later? I guess that's the sort of thing that happens when you have Jose Canseco in your life. Then again, a decade-ago pool party is always a more pleasant thing to reminisce about than a decade-ago bleeding ass wound.

- The mysterious Clemens nanny hasn't surfaced, but what's the over/under on which month she appears in Playboy? I say July. I'm surprised the New York Post doesn't have pictures yet.

- I had no idea that lunatic Dan Burton was even still in Congress. I had assumed he'd retired to a life of non-stop golf junkets around the time the Clinton impeachment failed. It could be worse, I suppose- he could still be chairman of this committee.

- It's amusing when a Congressional hearing takes place related to baseball, or some other topic that massive amounts of people care about, and people watching are shocked -shocked, I tell you!- about what self-righteous, grand-standing idiots so many members of Congress are. News flash- it's like this every day!

- Still though, I'm not totally sold on the "Congress has better things to do" argument. It's not like they would've spent Wednesday ending the Iraq war or solving the subprime crisis had it not been for the baseball hearing. And besides, Congress holds hundreds of hearings each year- this was just three hours. But still...

- Why in the world is steroids within the purview of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee? The topic seems to be about neither oversight nor the government nor reform.

- Speaking of members of Congress sticking their nose in sports, there's also Arlen Specter threatening a Spanish Inquisition of the Patriots' dynasty- and then there's Patrick Murphy. The first-term Congressman from Pennsylvania this week was the lone dissenting vote on a resolution to congratulate the Giants on winning the Super Bowl. Murphy said he couldn't in good conscience, as an Eagles fan, vote for the Giants. That's the sort of thing that makes him sound like a hero to Philly and like a pathetic sore loser to the rest of the country.

- Funny to see such a pronounced Democrat/Republican split on which side the members of Congress took in the hearing. A few hypotheses:
a) Clemens is himself a staunch Republican, and has schmoozed with GOP politicians for years, including in the days leading up to the hearing. So they naturally took his side.
b) Waxman (the chairman) took the anti-Clemens position right off the bat, so the other Dems followed his lead and the Republicans took the opposite tack just out of spite.
c) McNamee was clearly the "underdog" in the situation, so the Dems naturally flocked to his side. Had there been a hearing into the subprime mess, and two of the witnesses had been someone who had their house foreclosed on one side and the CEO of Countrywide on the other, I'd guess Chris Shays would have browbeaten the former witness, while Elijah Cummings grilled the latter.

Still though, I thought it amusing that McNamee's lawyers suggested that President Bush may someday pardon Clemens, if he ever gets indicted. How in the world could Dubya justify pardoning Clemens and not Bonds, when the two of them stand accused of committing the exact same crime for the exact same reason?

I end with a movie quote that fits the occasion, as pointed out by a poster on Baseball Think Factory:

"I'm happy that you've made the statement. But I cannot agree with most of my colleagues. See, I don't think an adult of your intellegence should be commended for simply, at long last, telling the truth."
That's Congressman Steven Derounian, to Charles Van Doren after he finally confesses to a congressional committee, at the end of "Quiz Show." Here it applies to Andy Pettitte- sure, he agreed to finally tell the truth, even if it means curtains for best friend in the world. But is he a hero? Not quite.

Derounian, incidentally, was a Republican.

Posted by Stephen Silver at February 15, 2008 04:41 PM
Comments

Is it in this committee because of the anti-trust exemption?

Is it possible that baseball would still have a spineless drug program w/o the congress involvement?

Posted by: Jeff S at February 17, 2008 10:30 PM
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