Roger Clemens found not guilty

June 18, 2012

By John Seiler

Some good news for a change. Roger Clemens, the greatest pitcher of our time, just was found not guilty of perjury.

In 2008, he made the mistake of testifying before the U.S. Congress, instead of taking the Fifth. He told Congress he hadn’t used performance-enhancing drugs. As if it was any of Congress’s business if he had.

Congress — the biggest collection of liars in history — then accused him of lying. Fortunately, a jury of his peers acquitted him.

Clemens supposedly used steroids and other enhancements that at the time were legal in professional baseball. He did better than Barry Bonds, who was convicted of a phony felony “obstruction of justice” charge in another steroids case.

The whole matter should have stayed between Major League Baseball and Clemens. Government never should have gotten involved.

But grandstanding, mendacious politicians, led by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, assaulted the baseball players and the league itself. Supposedly the baseball players were corrupting “our children.” McCain was gearing up for his presidential bid.

MLB should have told Congress to take a hike. But MLB gets a special anti-trust exemption no other league enjoys. There’s no way they would endanger that. So they gave in to Congress.

The federal government spent millions of dollars to prosecute this case and a previous one against Clemens that ended in a mistrial — at a time of trillion-dollar federal deficits. And Clemens had to pay millions to keep himself out of the clink. That’s after he paid tens of millions in taxes during his long career.

And by the way, how come McCain never criticized fellow Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for repeatedly pumping himself up with steroids during his bodybuilding career?

Could it be because Arnold’s campaign managers in 2006 played crucial roles in McCain’s 2008 presidential bid?

Or McCain needed Arnold’s 2008 endorsement?

What a bunch of liars, frauds and cheats. Just what we should expect from Congress.