The Fountainhead
First, I don’t know why on Earth CNBC was showing the Clemens hearings live this morning. That’s a misallocation of resources even more egregious than the hearings themselves - I expect Congress to squander time and money; it’s what they do. I expect more from a subsidiary of GE. Anyhoo…
I just couldn’t get Ayn Rand’s novel out of my head as I watched Roger Clemens - Gallery of Greatness inductee and quite possibly the greatest pitcher ever - grilled by a motley assortment of intellectual pygmies led, appropriately if not admirably, by Henry Waxman. None of these men have ever excelled at anything to the degree Clemens has excelled at his craft, yet they seek their own ancillary glory in attempting to diminish his. In doing so they revealed the incredible smallness of their character. Small men, unworthy of their office.
One thing that baffles me is that the questioning broke so heavily along partisan lines, with Democrats generally focusing their ire on Clemens, and Republicans generally attacking McNamee. Is there some partisan angle on this of which I am unaware? Lord knows the House GOP contingent hasn’t distinguished itself as a bastion of Randian thought, so I don’t think its the Ryan-Neumann thesis. Is it purely random, or is there some weird partisan angle to this?
February 13th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
I wondered about this myself.
This is a stretch, but the only thing I can think of is that Demos liken Mcnamee to a “blue collar” kind of guy, doing what he can to make a buck as a trainer, then doing the “right” thing in blowing the whistle on Clemens and getting crap for it, while Clemens is the big, bad, rich, pampered, egotistical “I can do no wrong” athlete?
Otherwise, I dunno…
February 13th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Makes more sense than anything I can think of
February 13th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
What transpired today was without question a true mockery of a sham. Not even arguably.
And these people run the country - may G-d help us, and our children….
February 14th, 2008 at 6:52 am
But apparently they do have a sense of history. I didn’t watch myself, but I understand they made veiled references to congressional hearings of the past - baseball-related and non-baseball-related.
One congressman referenced Sosa (though not by name, I believe) when he said something about coming before the committee and answering no questions cuz you couldn’t speak the language.
Apparently another made reference the Ollie North proceedings with a “potted plant in the middle” reference, when speaking to that dude that sat between Clemens and McNamee - apparently a guy who worked on the Mitchell Report, but clearly who’s main purpose on this day was to keep Clemens from ringing Mac’s neck like Homer would do Bart… “why you little!”. The “potted plant” was indeed a buffer, cuz as we all know, “yeah, Senator… we had a lotta buffers.”
Those witticisms (or at least attempts therein) aside, it’s a joke. My conclusion, based on everything I’ve read discussing it is (a) they’re both lying to some degree, and (b) congresspeople are most concerned with lining up along party lines, even when there’s no discernible reason for them to do so other than to suggest “the other side” doesn’t know what they’re doing. Maybe that’s the reason? They flipped a coin before the proceedings, perhaps even bet Pounders on who would end up looking worse, and then chose sides randomly just so they could be on opposite sides of this farcical debate.
February 14th, 2008 at 11:21 am
My favorite part was when Burton took Macnamee to task for lying, (”The one thing I don’t believe is you”), yet Clemens got caught in several lies himself, but said nothing.
Actually, I had another favorite part - when Virginia Fox held up the poster with 4 pictures of Clemens and saying, “See? His body hasn’t changed all that much”
February 14th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I actually watched the replay of the whole thing last night, and this is such a clear cut case IMHO. What exactly did McNamee lie about under oath? The only things that the scumbag Burton pointed out [http://www.salon.com/news/1998/12/cov_22newsa.html ]
was the meeting at Canseco’s house, and a previous lie that McNamee admitted to in 2001. Clemens admitted towards the end of the hearing that he may have driven by the BBQ at Canseco’s house, and he did admit that his wife/kids/nanny spent the night there. The previous lies that McNamee told were to protect his clients.
I will say that Clemens is a phenomanol liar. I couldn’t do what he is doing with a straight face. I am very impressed.
February 14th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
In-deed… with his baseball career over, he should move into professional poker. Imagine him on WSOP? I mean, the ratings would be huge… but also, who the hell would know when he’s bluffing? Has anyone detected any tells yet?
February 14th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I have - he doesn’t look at the person speaking to him when he’s lying, and he also licks his lips about 1,000 times…
February 14th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
I thought Clemens looked like someone trying to hide something. He stammered quite a bit like he was trying to get his story straight in his mind.
February 15th, 2008 at 5:31 am
Apparently a noted Body Language Analyst agrees with you:
“http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3244344″