slavinzing56
Joined: 08 Jul 2011
Posts: 122
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 Clemens trial proves the Feds can't clean up baseball |
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Well, at least we finally have an answer to the eternal question: doesn’t the government have better things to do than to go after steroids in baseball?
Yes. Especially if it does it this badly.
People can pretend all they want to that the federal government did its job and accomplished its goal when it managed to convict Barry Bonds in April on one of the original 11 counts it charged him with. Nobody can sugarcoat this one, though. The Feds got clowned on their pursuit of Roger Clemens, even while Clemens all but begged them to convict him.
More: Judge declares mistrial in Clemens case | Opening arguments: Clemens' DNA or fakery
At least they got all the way through to the end of Bonds’ trial on perjury charges connected to his grand-jury testimony about steroid use in baseball. That prosecution ended up being full of sound and fury signifying nothing –- years of loud talk backed up by just enough evidence to pin him on a lesser charge of obstruction of justice, not remotely enough to justify all that money ($6 million, by one estimate), time and aggravation.
But that trial lasted more than two weeks. Against Clemens, the government didn’t make it til lunchtime on the second day. Mistrial, of all things. Primarily because the federal prosecutors mis-remembered what Judge Reggie Walton had deemed inadmissible for trial. Twice.
The second time, on Thursday morning –- a portion of a tape of Clemens’ allegedly criminal testimony to Congress three years ago –- was the last straw. Walton caught it even before Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin, got a chance to leap up, flail his arms, and shout, “Your HONOR! We MUST approach!” (Or would have, had this been an episode of “Law & Order.”)
So far, it appeared that the only guilty party is the prosecutors trying Clemens. For now, they stand accused of felony sloppiness, inattention and laziness, with charges of gross arrogance available to be filed later. It has the stench of entitlement, that they figured they had Clemens down cold and that a guilty verdict was just a matter of showing up in court on time each day.
The judge in the perjury case against Roger Clemens has declared a mistrial, citing prosecutorial errors. (AP photo)
Your tax dollars at work.
So Clemens’ trial –- also for lying under oath about his own use of performance-enhancing drugs, this time to that long-ago, post-Mitchell Report Congressional hearing –- is over. Not completely dead, but the priest has been summoned. Anyone making a case to start over is going to get shouted down, possibly by someone official enough to put the whole thing to rest for good.
This fiasco, then, destroys every last decent argument in favor of trying these once sure-fire Hall of Famers in court for their crimes against baseball, and in favor of the U.S. government coming in to fix a problem for which the game itself should have taken responsibility long ago.
For all the complaining that dates back to the original 2005 hearings on Capitol Hill, starring Rafael Palmeiro’s wagging finger and Mark McGwire’s unwillingness to talk about the past, the Feds produced results that made it worth the effort. Talk about baseball’s testing policies all you like and decide on your own whether players are just doing a better job beating them, but at least there is a program in place and consequences to be paid. (And have been paid -- right, Manny Ramirez, wherever you are?)
The twin trials, though, reinforce the notion that the government’s role has been all about grandstanding, of naming well-known scapegoats, of hijacking public interest in baseball and doping to score political points. Remember, this all began with then-President Bush’s 2004 State of the Union address and his insistence that sports needs to provide role models and must run drug users out. Right in the middle of two wars, but also in the middle of Bonds’ pursuit of the home-run record.
Ironically, at this moment, President Obama and Congress are going at it like pit bulls over the national deficit, while millions have been flushed away on these two cases. Chances are good that neither ballplayer’s name has come up in the talks.
Nearly eight years passed between Bonds’ original testimony and the end of his trial. It’s three years and counting since Clemens first went up the Hill. Everybody still believes they ‘roided up. Baseball still has to answer to the legacy left by them and the hundreds of others, on and off the field, who perpetrated the fraud.
It stinks that the government had to intervene to make baseball start doing the right thing. It stinks worse that the ones left with the task was … the government.
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