Well, lets discuss Clemens shall we? Here is a great article by a terrific writer. He makes excellent points, and I agree that Roger is as guilty as they come.
Clemens hearing showed inefficiency of politicsBy Jason Whitlock
Award-winning Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock brings his thought-provoking style to FOXSports.com on a weekly basis.
Updated: February 15, 2008, 7:05 PM EST
Mystery solved. If you wondered why our government accomplishes little of substance, the five-hour Roger Clemens congressional hearing answered your question.
Nothing undermines a search for the truth as effectively and decisively as politics.
Let's move beyond the ridiculousness of elected officials wasting a day trying to decipher Brain McNamee's and Roger Clemens' he-said-he-said over performance-enhancing drugs. It was what it was, a well-orchestrated publicity stunt put on for the immoral edification of sports writers, talk-show hosts, broadcasters and ESPN.
No, let's instead examine how party politics and the dishonesty of our elected officials compromise our government's ability to arrive at even the most simple, obvious truth.
Realizing that he would spend Wednesday afternoon testifying (deceitfully, in my opinion) before congress, Clemens spent much of last week lobbying congressmen/women to hear him sympathetically. His efforts worked beautifully, as countless Republican representatives ignored glaring inconsistencies, inaccuracies and contradictions in Clemens' story and focused their attention on proving McNamee used to lie to newspaper and magazine reporters about his training regimen.
Let me make one thing clear: I am neither Republican nor Democrat, liberal nor conservative. I abhor politics because of its inherent untruthfulness. I have never participated in the political process. Never. I don't share that with a great deal of pride. I've just found it impossible to participate in a process that is directly opposed to truth.
What we witnessed Wednesday confirmed my belief. Politics are the sworn enemy of truth.
Brian McNamee testified that he injected Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, Debbie Clemens and Roger Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs. Pettitte, Knoblauch and Debbie Clemens all acknowledged that McNamee injected them with drugs.
When placed under oath, McNamee's credibility on the issue of who he did and didn't puncture with drugs is quite high.
Somehow, a group of mostly Republican congressmen took it upon themselves to spend the afternoon attacking McNamee's integrity on drug dealing/needling. Grown men and women threw out every deductive cell of common sense in their brain and launched into assaults on McNamee.
Rep. Dan Burton (Republican) found it remarkable and unbelievable that McNamee could work for Clemens given the fact that McNamee stated that he didn't fully trust Clemens. What world does Burton live in? This is the case for at least 50 percent of the American workforce. People get married to people they like and respect but don't trust on an hourly, if not minute-by-minute basis.
Burton then went on to claim that the lies McNamee told newspaper and magazine reporters about Pettitte's and Clemens' drug use were proof that he's now lying under oath and at the risk of perjury.
"This is really disgusting," Burton barked at McNamee. "You're here as a sworn witness, you're here to tell the truth, you're here under oath. And yet we have lie, after lie, after lie... I don't know what to believe. I know one thing I don't believe, and that's you... Roger Clemens... is a titan in baseball."
Dan Burton is either the dumbest man in Congress or the biggest Clemens fan in politics. Well, he could be both.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (Republican) held up pictures of Clemens in different baseball uniforms and deduced that she couldn't see a physical difference.
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (Democrat) savagely attacked McNamee and then proclaimed: "Mr. Clemens, all I cay say is, I'm sure you're going to heaven."
There were several congressmen, including Mark Souder, a Republican from Indiana, who stayed on topic, pursued the truth without an agenda and asked Clemens many difficult questions. Clemens had no good answers.
By the time Rep. Henry Waxman (Democrat) closed the hearing, he felt compelled to offer McNamee an apology for the behavior and comments of some of his colleagues. America was owed an apology. This is how our government works.
A lobbyist, which Clemens was all last week, convinced a group of elected officials to play games with the truth. Wednesday was a public-relations battle between Clemens and McNamee. Clemens' lawyers banked on their star player's ability to woo a few political supporters, so that the hearing wouldn't be a one-sided examination of Clemens' half-baked explanations.
Clemens sold himself as a patriotic all-American family man who speaks to children about doing things the right way. He's a big strapping baseball icon with a beautiful blonde wife. He's America.
McNamee is a corrupt ex-cop.
With a little help from Roger's friends in the House, we were supposed to choose the patriot sports hero over the weasel, lying trainer.
As I followed the hearing on ESPN and the Internet, I found only a couple of people buying Clemens' garbage. Clemens and his lawyers might want to send legal analyst Roger Cossack the same bottle of wine they'll send Dan Burton, Tom Davis, Virginia Foxx and others. Cossack did everything in his power to convince viewers and the attorney general that there was no possible way to convict Clemens of perjury. Cossack even praised Burton's mumbo jumbo.
It was quite fortunate for Clemens that an "objective" legal observer was on air throughout the day to assure viewers that McNamee's allegations are highly suspect even though a high percentage of them are backed by Pettitte, Knoblauch and Debbie Clemens.
Cossack's expert framing of the day's events undermined the solid on-camera work of Bob Ley, Karl Ravech and Steve Phillips.
Our government could not run inefficiently and dishonestly without assistance from the fourth estate... and people like yours truly who choose to ignore lying politicians rather than fight them.
Yeah, we're all to blame for Wednesday's mess.
Read this article at:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7794774...ncy-of-politics