I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, so I didn't know if I was going to make it to the blog tonight, but I feel like I just HAVE to post a few thoughts on what went on in DC today with the Roger Clemens hearing.
First of all, from a Congressional perspective, this hearing was utterly worthless. At least in past hearings, while I never thought Congress should have been involved, it was clear that hearing was meant to investigate the larger problem of steroids in baseball. Today's hearing basically boiled down to an investigation into steroid allegations against one player. Such investigations are what we have the Justice department for, and the reality is that even the Justice Department wouldn't typically get involved in investigating one drug user. In fact, in this case, the statute of limitations has already expired, so there really is no place for the federal government to get involved. Or at least there wasn't. Clearly, someone perjured themselves today. To the credit of the committee, their comments indicated that they were prepared to call off the public proceedings, but Clemens' team insisted that they needed this forum. I would advise Congress in the future to not bow to the wishes of a famous baseball player when determining how to spend their time and my money.
Secondly, for as much as Clemens apparently wanted this hearing to go forward, today's developments weren't positive for him. McNamee is clearly a questionable witness, but the depositions and today's hearing brought probably the most believeable figure in the case (Andy Pettitte) in, and he's backing up McNamee's story. No matter how compelling Clemens is (and that's debateable), the case is quickly becoming one where either Clemens is lying, or everyone else is lying. The medical testimony relative to the abcess that Clemens had on his backside at one point in Toronto wasn't particularly helpful to his cause either. One thing that was clear to me is that he has no chance of winning his defamation suit against McNamee, and I would be surprised if that suit even goes forward.
McNamee's image was not helped today either, however. He admitted to several instances of lying, and conceded that he didn't give all the information he had to the investigators at first. At the same time, we've learned that Chuck Knoblauch, the third player McNamee implicated in the Mitchell report, has said that McNamee was telling the truth, which means that in order to believe Clemens, you'd have to believe the McNamee was telling the truth about everyone except him.
Lastly, it seems pretty clear to me at this point that a perjury investigation is coming from the feds, which is the primary reason why I didn't want these proceedings to go forward. It's time to move on, but that just isn't going to happen. Let's remember, Barry Bonds was hit with a perjury indictment 2 1/2 years after his grand jury testimony, so the chances of a quick resolution seem to be pretty slim. Perjury is a crime, but the bottom line in my book is these proceedings should never have taken place, and so I'm fairly certain there are a number of things I'd rather have the Justice Department looking into than whether Roger Clemens lied about steroid use in the context of a pointless Congressional hearing.
I'm strongly considering moving to a remote island until Clemens' seemingly inevitable perjury trial is over.
2 months ago
2 comments:
Word has it that Bush may pardon Clemens for his testimony in the Congressional hearing, so you probably don't have to book that flight to Bouvet Island. (Good thing too. That parachute drop can kill you.)
Normally I am always the last to give in and stop giving an accused person the benefit of the doubt (and perhaps I'm last in Clemens's case as well). However, the testimony of Andy Pettite sunk Clemens for me. It wasn't so much Pettitte testifying that Clemens told him he took HGH, so much as Clemens's reaction that Pettitte "must have misunderstood." If I had never done illegal drugs and never told my friend that I had done illegal drugs, and then I hear that my friend is testifying that I had told him I had done illegal drugs, I'd have a stronger reaction than that.
Clemens isn't as lucky in his friends as Pete Rose was. Pete Rose's saving grace (early on) was that all of his friends were slimy, lying weasels so it was easier to give Rose the benefit of the doubt.
Heh, a presidential pardon would lead to a whole new set of issues...
And I agree with you about Clemens' response to Pettitte's allegations. I've felt that way about a number of Clemens' reactions to various things along the way. His reactions seem far too calculated and coached for someone who is truly innocent. As a for instance, the conversation with McNamee that he recorded. Forgeting what even doing that in the first place says about Clemens, he showed more anger at the reporters in the press conference where he played that than he did in his conversation with McNamee.
For someone who claims to have the truth on his side, he's consistently seemed overly cautious with his words.
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