Your President: on Steroids
February 28th, 2007I like to mix politics, humor and baseball here, with the last one appearing a little less often but soon it’ll be around a little more (more on that later, though). Today, we have an excerpt from the new edition of Game of Shadows about Barry Bonds, steroids and baseball, and I’d like to share a paragraph that stood out.
An encounter with President Bush also encouraged us to believe that the government wouldn’t press on with the leak probe. We had met the president on April 30, 2005, at a private reception before the White House correspondents dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. Bush seemed familiar with our work. “You’ve done a service,” the president told us. Then, for a few minutes, we discussed baseball and steroids and the congressional steroid hearings, which had recently concluded. Bush was dismayed by Mark McGwire’s embarrassing refusal to answer questions about whether he had used banned drugs, describing Big Mac’s testimony as, “Sad, sad, very sad.” Rafael Palmeiro’s defiant, unequivocal denials had impressed the president: Palmeiro had played on the Texas Rangers when Bush had owned the team, and the president obviously hoped Palmeiro was telling the truth. Bush mentioned the BALCO stories again as the conversation came to an end. “You’ve done a service,” he repeated.
Now, George W. Bush is a man who has been said by Jose Canseco — the Honorable Rat, as I like to call him (with help coining the nick from a former friend) — to have known and supported his friends who were doing steroids on the Texas Rangers when he owned the team. It doesn’t surprise me that he’d have that position, whatever he may say to the contrary today, and it makes me wonder if there’s anything he doesn’t lie about.
Not the War Plan; not Valentine’s Day poetry; not even his true feelings on steroids in baseball.
Babe Ruth must be barfing up hotdogs in his grave. And I’ll bet George Washington is having a fit.