What kind of message is Congress sending in an election year? Is it that they are as eager to get out of this war as the rest of the American people? No. Perhaps it is the dwindling education levels of our children in the public school system, which has been bottom-feeding for decades? No. While American voters are heavily weighing candidates for the election in November, praying that these people might finally spark our economy back to life, Congress is holding meetings to determine whether Miguel Tejada, Roger Clemens, and Andy Pettitte ever used performance enhancing drugs.Don’t get me wrong; this is a very important issue. What, with murder rates higher than they’ve ever been; and with a higher percentage of the population in prison than any other country, where up to five people will be living in a cell built for two. The facts are simple. Our country is falling apart and we are at a time where we are looking to our leaders to guide us into the next electoral term.
Now is the time to, at least, tell us you have some sort of concept of change ahead. But with the several meetings between Congress, Sen. George Mitchell, and Roger Clemens, I can only deduce that our political system, as Chris Rock once said, “Is not trying to catch Osama Bin Laden, [they are] trying to catch Barry Bonds.” Millions of taxpayer dollars are now being poured into an effort to turn around a private enterprise.
Surely, Major League Baseball has a pretty good handle on things. Last I checked, when people buy season tickets for Fenway Park, they don’t wear Romney caps, or wave Kerry flags in the stands. This is about doing what’s right for the league and for the fans, and it is not up to Congress to determine what is best. Rather, Congress should be enforcing legal practices to prevent drug use in our public schools, or perhaps investing those extra millions of dollars into public works projects that can get our economy out of the gutter.
How’s that deficit coming along?
I am not a politician. I am not a baseball player. I am a fan of professional sports. It does bother me to see these names: Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada, Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens, etc. sitting on a 311-page document by Sen. Mitchell. However, I do agree with Joe Torre, who pointed out how all of the people listed were given by the same two people. I also give a lot of credit to Rusty Hardin, the Texas lawyer picked up by Clemens, who pointed out that McNamee was under a great deal of pressure and facing prison time. He needed to give up big names to get big results for his testimony. Mitchell also stated before Congress yesterday that “McNamee had an overwhelming incentive to tell the truth.”
Overwhelming incentive. That sounds like something might have pushed him over the edge.
I cannot claim to know whether or not Clemens did it; or any other player for that matter. But what I do know is that Major League Baseball, its owners and organizations, is amongst the highest profiting industries in this country. Congress has much bigger fish to fry. It’s time for them to stop butting in on Major League Baseball and think about what the American people really want to know.
How about that health care system?
Originally submitted at ChewThemOut.com by Andrew Keating
4 comments:
they don't have romney hats, they have romney mitts.
CNN broadcasted 10 minutes of primetime air to talk about how the letters were put up on the new Yankee Stadium. Talk about politics and baseball bumping heads.
They care about this because it is what people care about. It gets them on the frontpage without having to risk making a real stand. From a political standpoint, this is a goldmine of publicity.
But here's the big picture, all that Congress had to do was pull out of Iraq before it got ugly and they wouldn't have impregnated the world with notions of American stupidity. More and more people are just getting annoyed by the stance of the government in baseball politics. The MLB Commish just enstated a new division of the league, which will enforce and seek out performance-enhancing drug use. I get that the MLB hired a former senator to investigate; he was the right man for the job. But, remember - the government didn't want enough of a part in it to offer subpoena power to Mitchell and his team. This means that the government is allowing themselves to be an afterthought power. "Oh, you found someone who's an international spotlight? Thanks, we'll take over from here."
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