The Defense of Roger Clemens
Let’s start right here: I loathe Roger Clemens. The man is a rat bastard traitor to Red Sox nation, and for that he should be burned in effigy on Lansdowne Street every night. They should have pinatas of him for beat down at McGreevy’s Third Base Saloon. He should have to spend time in hell in Babe Ruth’s Dutch Oven. But, this prosecution is stupid and a waste of time.
From an article about the defense:
Lawyers for Roger Clemens said Tuesday they will challenge the underlying legitimacy of congressional hearings into the use of performance enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball that led to six felony charges that the pitching icon lied to Congress.
Congress delved into the alleged use of steroids and human growth hormone by baseball players without having relevant legislation pending before Congress and without subsequently generating proposed legislation, Attanasio explained.
Clemens faces federal charges stemming from allegedly lying to Congress during testimony in which he denied using performance enhancing drugs during a distinguished 23-year season career. The prosecution’s star witness, former strength coach Brian McNamee, claimed before Congress that he had injected the pitcher with medications banned by Major League Baseball on multiple occasions with the full knowledge of Clemens.
Really? We are prosecuting him for lying to a body that should have zero interest in the topic, and which is peopled by folks so G D stupid that one of them worried that Guam might capsize endangering US Marines?
The Clemens defense team’s courtroom attack on Congress built upon documents submitted to the court that argued prosecutors must prove to a jury that the congressional hearing was “being held within the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry bestowed upon” a House committee.
The House “does not have authority to expose the private affairs of individuals, nor does it have the power to attempt to resolve differences between two individuals conducting a hearing unrelated to existing or potential legislation,” the defense filing contended in a submission designed to shape the trial judge’s jury instructions.
Can anyone give me a valid interest Congress has in this? And “Commerce Clause” won’t cut it. Should Congress also be involved in finding who really killed Tupac and Big E. Smalls? What about investigating American Idol?
I had a buddy who once got bounced from a witness list on a hearing by…..Elmo. That’s right, Elmo. He was bounced from a hearing for a rug that some dude has on his hand. If Congress isn’t going to be serious about anything, why in the hell would we care if someone lies before it?
Defense lawyers contend Clemens’ voluntary testimony to Congress was not “material” to the work of Congress and that lawmakers took no remedial action in response to testimony about drug use in baseball other than referring Clemens to prosecutors for allegedly lying.
Prosecutor Daniel Butler challenged Attanasio’s contention, insisting Congress enjoys broad powers to delve into issues of public concern. Prosecutors hope to bolster their contention with immediate testimony as early as today by retired House Parliamentarian Charles Johnson and former committee chief counsel Phil Barnett.
Butler emphasized that a congressional hearing back in 2005 prompted both legislation to regulate steroids and creation of Major League Baseball’s commission led by former Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, to investigate the scope of drug abuse within the multibillion-dollar professional sport.
All this shit was going down when I was deployed, and leading the show was the execrable Republican Chairman from Virginia Tom Davis. With the possible exception of Ron Paul, I have never despised a GOP as much as him. And now this rat bastard is teaching classes at GMU, which annoys me to no end.
Anyway, as much as I hate Clemens, and am certain dude lied his ass off, I hope this defense works and sends a message that The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. And one of those is overseeing professional sports. Congress should stick to what it is good at, doing jack shit.
Category: Politics
This is rich….he’s convicted of lying to the biggest den of liars the world has ever known….pot meet kettle doesn’t even come close enough…
Are you from the Northeast TSO? If so what part?
Berkshire County. Lived 1/2 mile from CT, about 5 from NY, southwest corner of Mass.
I find this lauchable for other reasons: (regardless of his guilt) Clemons is being prosecuted for lying to Congress by Congress. Yest Congress lies to the American public on an almost daily basis in one form or another, and none of them sumbitches are prosecuted for it.
WTF?!? Really? Our country is spiraling to a big pile of poo and this merits Congresses attention? National debt out the waazoo, unemployment rising, a two/ three front war and our esteemed Congress wants to put it’s nose where it has no business. Sometimes I hate living in the greatest country on earth.
Ahh ok, I’m originally from Lynn, Mass.
Yeah, I am from the boonies. Hit exit 2 and head south on Rt 7. That was me. haven’t been back in years though, my Dad moved to Bangor Maine when my Mom passed.
I’m glad TSO can rise about the Sox/Yanks partisan bickering to see the danger Congress poses when they do things like this. Kinda like when that asshat from Penn, Arlen Specter wanted to conduct hearings into spygate. Maybe he should worry about why Philly had irrational hatered for its own QB then bismirch the image of Tom Brady and BB.
No thoughts on Clemens, but the idea that Congress could be offended because someone lied is laughable.
And, TSO, just a minor point, Davis couldn’t have been the Chairman of the committee, the dems held the majority in ’08, when the hearings took place.
UN- Actually, I was referring to 04-05 when they had the hearings and he was Chairman, not the specific Clemens one. My bad. Was reffering to what this article is talking about:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43422-2005Mar17.html
My mom is from Lynn and my late pop, a retired USAF navigator, was from Springfield.
I dare say Clemens wont be too welcomed at the Cask & Flagon either. Or the Hilltop Steak House.
Pfft. Hilltop is overrated anyway, Mike. Try Grill 23 and Bar. But you’re right in that anywhere Clemens shows up in a six-state area known as Red Sox Nation, he’s pretty much gonna get the cold shoulder.
The Hard Cover. Need I say more?
I’ve passed by it I don’t know how many times but never been there. Same with Finz in Salem. Both are now on the go to list.
Ever been to Barker Tavern in Scituate? My buddy is the Maitre’D there.
The principle of the thing is this: we do not lie when we have sworn not to lie. If Clemens lied, the he will undergo legal due process.
The second principle at work is willful stupidity. People paid tons of cash to watch Clemens play ball. If drugs made him a star, and we paid him to take them in order to entertain us, why isn’t every ball player taking drugs? If we the People really cared about drug use, we would stop paying to watch these guys and gals, even on TV.
#14 Skip Finz and hit up Victoria Station. Finz is way overpriced and the lobster rolls are pretty small. The Hard Cover is expensive, but well worth the money.
#15 Never been to Scituate.
I miss MA, especially it’s proximity to NH and ME. I went back to visit my mother in Nashua and had some serious thoughts about telling the wife “tough shit, we’re moving here” once I started driving up the White Mountains.
DaveO, here’s the thing with that–yes, we as veterans place a very high value on integrity–more so than virtually every other civilian profession.
But when Barroid Bonds can lie on his taxes and commit perjury (allegedly) and get away virtually scot-free, while Clemens can legally have told Congress to GFT in the first place yet some committee with no real legal authority told Clemens his 5th Amendment rights weren’t applicable? Does anyone have a problem with this?
Sparky,
I have significant problems with it, but the larger principle must be upheld for a number of reasons. One being we will be seeing [potentially] another trial over lying to Congress concerning the BATF providing guns to Mexican drug cartels. If Clemens is allowed to walk after lying to Congress, shouldn’t the idiots in our government who enabled the murder of 2 Americans (that we know about) also be allowed to walk?
I’m not certain I see a correlation between the two to be honest. Obviously they are both predicated on lying, so I get that. But looking at the larger picture, Congress controls the budget for BATF, has authority on confirmations etc. So, by it’s very nature, that would fall under the baliwick of Congress.
But, Congress shouldn’t be able to block trades in baseball, or decide on how much tickets are, or whether to fire Grady Little for allowing Pedro to pitch over 100 pitches. (Although, I might support that one retroactively.)
I think for me the deciding factor has to be not just whether the lie took place, but whether Congress is empowered to do anything with the information gleaned from the hearing. If the lie is about something they have no authority to act on, I would argue that the lie and punishment thereof is not their authority.
Just a thought, Congress should apply the same standards to themselves *first* you know, like starting with sKerry lieing to Congress back in 71 up to oh let’s see…Rangle? Or Pelousi or ?
#20 TSO,
If Clemens lied, under oath, and walks – the oath itself has no purpose anymore. If the oath no longer has a purpose, how does one know what is true?
To be honest, I don’t know how to disagree. I guess I would have gone the “prosecutorial discretion” angle. Yeah, he totally lied. But I agree with his defense in a way, that he never would have lied had the Congress not come up with some BS way to insinuate themselves in something that was none of their business.
But yeah, hard to argue your point.
They go after a dumbass baseball player to prove a point, but a President lies in sworn testimony to a Grand Jury in the 1990’s, and he gets to stay in office and is re-elected.
Yeah , lets go after Clemens because if we don’t the whole system is shot…that horse left the barn years ago.