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DEAN'S LIST - 2/24/2008
(by Dean Naddeo - OpEd Columnist - February 24, 2008)
Congress strikes out
For unclear reasons, the United States Congress felt obligated last week to follow-up on the Mitchell steroids report with a public interrogation of Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee. Countless Americans watched or listened as Clemens, the baseball legend, angled his way from one mistruth to the next, and McNamee, the suddenly-sensitive drug pusher, struggled to convince the world that he had lied time and time again in order to "protect his friends."
Entertaining as they may have been, these proceedings clearly served more bad than good, as they effectively highlighted more than just the problem of performance enhancing drug use in Major League Baseball. For many of us, our duly elected members of Congress were the true losers here, as their many weaknesses and inabilities were revealed under the glare of the national spotlight.
The mere fact that the federal government would involve itself in such a trivial affair is puzzling: Representative Westmoreland (R-Georgia) may have said it best when he lamented, "I hope there are more important things for oversight and reform of this government than alleged bad behavior of individuals." Like national security for instance, or the loopholes in federal and state gun purchase laws that allow the mentally ill to obtain weapons.
Sadly, neither the Republican nor Democrat members of Congress made an attempt to suppress their vivid partisan differences in the interest of justice and truth finding. It was, unfortunately, politics as usual, with the Republicans standing firmly behind the American hero, and the Democrats, true to form, posturing with the repenting underdog.
Maybe it was Clemens' ties to George H.W. Bush that prompted the softball questions from Republicans and high heat from the Democrats, but the line in the sand was more likely drawn by core differences in the two political parties: "Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet" as the song goes, represent traditional all-American values, and Roger Clemens personifies these ideals in every respect. Naturally then, Republican leaders will defend such icons to the very end.
To many Democrats, however, Roger Clemens isn't an American success story where hard work and dedication can make you a champion. Instead, he's likely viewed with contempt as "the Man," and these public hearings provided them the perfect opportunity to launch an attack on yet another traditional institution - a persistent element of the Democrat's national agenda.
In the end, our members of Congress managed to expose their collective shortcomings to a very attentive audience. It was extremely disheartening to witness the striking lack of intelligence and the inability to clearly articulate ideas demonstrated by many of these elected officials throughout the hearing. You would expect much more from a group of elite lawmakers, charged with making decisions and developing policies that dramatically effect the entire direction of our nation and beyond.
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