<p>Just curious if any others watched this and took away the one glaring thing that troubled me most. Putting aside the reality circus of the baseball steroid issue and all that went on in this, what troubled me was how/why did this break down on party lines. </p>
<p>Clearly the Republicans on the panel supported clemens and the Dems went hard after Roger the Rocket (or i guess he’s now Roger the “booster” Rocket and his wife the rockette).</p>
<p>It’s a sad commentary and I guess shows why congress can’t get together on anything when they divide into partisan camps on something like this.</p>
<p>I was traveling yesterday and listened to the entire hearing on XM. It was very apparent which side they were agreeing with.</p>
<p>What bothered me more, is that the hearings occurred. Not to put this into a political debate, but don’t we have more important things to deal with…health insurance, immigration, economy, etc…than who is the liar?</p>
<p>Great points in all the posts. clemens may not only be looking at possible perjury charges but obstruction of justice in approaching the nanny and discussing the matter with her before she meet with the congressional panel;
and firefly, whaddya think, a round of hgh for everyone at the clemens house for valentine’s day.</p>
<p>and geez, you’d think congress might have something better to do, but wow, the chance to meet roger the booster rocket and get his autograph and photos. what a circus.</p>
<p>The only thing missing was Robert Duvall shouting at the back of the room that the Corleone Family deserves an apology.</p>
<p>If there were performance-enhancing substances for my Congress people to take… so that they could actually perform their jobs (aforementioned health care issues, economy),… now there’s some substances I’d like to see consumed.</p>
<p>I didn’t watch it, but my mild-mannered, extremely non-partisan husband watched it and called me at work to tell me that he is no longer interested in being part of the republican party. He is enraged at Arlen Spector. But, really, who among republicans isn’t? Hubby is a former minor league pitcher whose career was ended by injury, so he’s particularly sensitive to this matter. Of course, it doesn’t help that he has a wife who is fond of saying such things as “I never liked Clemens. He wasn’t a REAL Yankee and I never got what you saw in him anyway” often and loudly.</p>
<p>I am disgusted by Roger Clemens and appalled at his wife. I think Mini is right and some jail time is apropriate.</p>
<p>Can someone tell me what laws (federal or state) are there that ban athletes from using steriods or human growth hormone? Why is the US Congress investigating this? Under what legislative power? Anyone know?</p>
<p>It seems to me that if MLB is serious about prohibiting drug use among ball players that the MLB should adopt a program that’s similar to the one used by Olympic athletes and overseen by the US Anti-doping agency (part of the US Olympic Committee). You’ll never stop athletes from using these drugs, but the Olympic drug-testing/monitoring program is a whole lot more serious than what the MLB is currently doing, or not.</p>
<p>Jon Stewart had a hilarious take on this on his program last night, if anyone has a chance to watch the reruns that come on around suppertime ( I don’t know if it will be tonight or Monday night) Said the R’s were taking Clemens side since he is yet another baseball oriented Texan they felt compelled to protect him like the other one (Bush). Really skewered Clemens on his mannerisms–licking his lips constantly. I didn’t watch the hearings, but the Daily Show was a riot.</p>
<p>To answer Bromfield’s questions, I am not sure about HGH, but most of the testosterone products are controlled drugs–some in the same class as morphine and amphetamines, others in the same classification as Vicodin. They are all, including HGH, “legend” drugs only, requiring a physicians prescription and supervision. Physicians are monitored on their CII prescribing habits in Texas, and tons of paperwork is involved when these type of drugs are ordered, administerd etc. I guess at the least there should be some questions about who is prescribing, are they being obtained legally, etc. I DO agree that this is should be low on Congress’s priority list when you consider the problems facing the nation, but it is illegal.</p>
<p>I just wish that Congress would grow balls and confront the NRA. I read last week in the New York Times that after all the wailing and gnashing of teeth after Va Tech, the Va legislature did NOT pass the bills that would have stopped the sale of guns in gun shows etc to disturbed people. And look what happened yesterday…</p>