Commentary by Mark Wiedmer
mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com
I don’t mind someone throwing the book at Roger Clemens. Unless congressional canary Brian McNamee is the biggest fibber this side of Pinocchio, Clemens is not only a liar but a cheat.
For his hubris alone in the face of overwhelming evidence that he used both steroids and HGH to prolong an already certain Hall of Fame career, he deserves whatever stiff penalty eventually comes his way.
But is Congress the best entity to throw the book? With the state this country is in, with so many of our citizens needing so much help at home and war still raging abroad, is there not something, anything better to do with our tax dollars – and I mean ours: yours, mine and ours – than shooting down the Rocket?
When you can’t explain where $800 billion in stimulus money has gone, why are you worrying over where a few needles landed on Clemens’ body?
This isn’t to say that Clemens should have lied to Congress, if he did. This isn’t to say he shouldn’t pay dearly for it, given his grandstanding and arrogance.
But all this from a governing body that rated dead-last among 16 institutions in a July Gallup poll? According to that survey, 50 percent of the public now has little or no confidence in Congress and only 11 percent has great confidence.
Just a hunch, but indicting Clemens for lying to them is probably not going to significantly lift those numbers to the good.
In fact, however much I believe Clemens is lying and probably should be denied admittance to the Hall of Fame because of it, I half hope he beats the rap when his trial begins on April 5, if only to further embarrass a Congress that has had so little trouble embarrassing itself.
This should always have been a baseball issue, not that baseball ever seemed that excited about addressing it. But it never should have become a dog and pony show for Congress in March of 2005, when it confronted Mark McGwire and others about their past steroid use.
In the five years since we have watched this issue rough up baseball players from Barry Bonds to Alex Rodriguez to Clemens, who defiantly told Congress in February 2008, “Let me be clear. I have never taken steroids or HGH.”
More than two years later, after pleading not guilty on Monday before U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, he Twittered, “I never took HGH or steroids and I did not lie to Congress.”
Unless Clemens can flee to some parallel universe instead of serving the 15 or so months he is expected to receive if found guilty, this all seems a bit ridiculous. Especially considering that he was reportedly offered a plea deal before the indictment was first handed down 12 days ago.
Why doesn’t he just call a news conference, shed a bucket of tears and tell the world he was so ashamed and embarrassed that he just couldn’t admit the truth, but that he’s probably taken enough juice to puff up like a Macy’s Parade balloon and he hopes his fans, his enemies and at least a few of his 4,762 strikeout victims can forgive him.
After that, he could throw in the fact that he wouldn’t feel comfortable going into the Hall even if they’d take him, then fly home to Texas, free as a bird rather than a jailbird.
A few minutes later, a representative of Congress could come forward and announce that until the budget is balanced, the war is over, Social Security is secure, health care is affordable for all and unemployment is closer to zero percent than 10, our elected officials won’t be wasting time or dollars on anything that doesn’t directly improve the lives or safety of U.S. citizens.
Yes, Roger Clemens represents all that has been wrong with baseball the past decade. But Roger Clemens also represents all that remains wrong with Congress.