Rocket-fueled Congress
February 13th, 2008No, this isn’t about the Laroucheian proposition that we use moon rocks as fuel — because the Russians will do it if we don’t! This is about Roger Clemens’ appearance before the Congress. I’ll keep it brief. First, I was struck by this New York Times article and would urge voters to throw the bums out! because of this serious violation.
Any members of the House oversight committee or their staff who asked Roger Clemens for an autograph during his tour of the Capitol over the past week might have violated a federal law against soliciting things of value from people with interests before the committee, several lawyers with expertise in Congressional ethics laws said.
In addition, if a staff member or a member of the committee had Clemens autograph a baseball, that would apparently violate a House ethics ban against taking a gift valued at more than $50, the lawyers said.
Clemens’s entourage here said he autographed scores of items Thursday and Friday while visiting 19 of the 40 members of the committee, which is set to take his testimony Wednesday. Clemens and his lawyers were back Tuesday, visiting more committee members in advance of the public hearing.
Without sarcasm, allow me to suggest that it was inappropriate and disgusting for Congressman to be fawning over him before the hearing, in addition to the little matter of this whole saga probably not deserving such a hearing. But if it is going to be held, can’t it be held with some level of dignity from the Congressman in charge?
To be fair, they’ve done a good job grilling Roger Clemens and he has been shown to be a liar. He’s admitted his wife’s use of human growth hormone and has attempted to pawn off Pettitte’s contradictions as misunderstandings, but that is not going to fly. Awhile ago, writing for Baseball Evolution, I noted that Clemens was playing a dangerous game, and now he appears to have lost, whatever Dan Burton, Idiot Congressman, has to say about McNamee.
On a final note, this is a comment left on ABC by a reader:
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Waxman and the rest of Congress investigated the connection between the fact that Americans pay 50% more for the same prescriptions than the rest of the world and virtually all of Congress, led by Kerry’s $270,000, have accepted huge campaign donations from Big Pharma - even companies losing money are donating hundreds of thousands of dollars. At one point I wondered what would happen if my pension dropped it’s prescription plan and I had to pick up the tab. I looked at Canadian prices and realized that my part of my premiums is equal to the difference in US and Canadian prices for my diabetes medications. So, thanks to our Congress, Big Pharma picks my, and other Americans, pockets - in my case for $113 per month.
I concur.