Posted on 02/18/2008 9:44:41 AM PST by The_Republican
We know that baseball and politics do not mix; remember during the 1994-1995 strike when Bill Clinton promised Bud Selig that he would back mediator Bill Ussery, then went back on his word?
Now we have Texas lawyers disparaging Henry Waxman, and some New York guy defaming the president of the United States by predicting George W. Bush will pardon Clemens if he is convicted of perjury. Did Bush befriend Clemens? Yes. Which is why there may be no one more upset with the 354-game winner's messy march through Washington than Bush.
Second, Peter does sounds like that he respects President Bush, and his character and seems to be defending his honor. Surprising because he is from People's Republic of Massachusettes.
Third, I was indeed surprised how Democrats and Republicans even found PARTISANSHIP during Clemens-McNamee hearings.
I was however NOT surprised by Republicans supporting Clemens. No one in their right mind can trust a single word that Clemens is saying. Yet Republicans put their own credibility on line and stood up for lying thug.
Why am I not surprised by Republican support of Clemens then? Because they are MORONS and this is just another move that fits the pattern. When you get everything else going against you, unpopular war, wobbling economy, old candidate, Jack Abaramoff, Toe Tapping in Male Public Toilets by most Conservative Senator, Rauncy pages to male interns, leaders like Tom Delay disgracefully chases from Power, then the only way to top that off is to get behind a RICH THUG who most people dislike at this point and have no faith in.
The pattern of stupidity demands that Pubs be behind Clemens!
I’ve gotta admit I was perplexed, disappointed and finally not surprised by the Republicans’ defense of Clemens.
Had they argued against it deserving such time and attention from the US Congress, I could have been with them. Their rank pandering to him as an athletic hero was, however, vaguely sickening.
Gammons is a diehard liberal, this isn't even a question, he is so far left, he is downright socialist.
That said, and I hate politics and sports mixing, but it was only natural for the dems to back the drug dealer since he was the star of the mitchell report, which was authored by the former democratic senate majority leader.
Between the 2, I think both are full of crap, but I'd rather err on the side of the guy who supports "wounded warriors" then side with a guy who was a drug dealing thug.
anyone who has to face henry waxman deserves whatever defense he can get.
Why can’t we be against BOTH of them and take any sides? Clemens maybe a disgraced Warrior, but he still disgraced and his dishonest and Klintonesque lying should be reviled and not supported. JMO.
Please don’t disparage Henry Waxman. The guy has enough problems having to walk around with the face of a pig. So don’t disparage him whatever you do.
Actually, this is one of the few areas where a Presidential pardon is basically useless. Yeah, if a perjury charge comes out of this the pardon will certainly help but it won’t be enough to get Clemens into the Hall of Fame. A perjury rap pales in comparison to that loss from Roger’s POV.
I think Clemens is full of it, but there is no way in hell I'm going to take the word of a rapist drug dealer over him.
If anything, this whole sham of a hearing just should not have happened, but waxman was hell bent on getting some face time and making the drug dealing rapist look good for his buddy Mitchell.
I place more value on man's character than his record.
This whole thing served no purpose other than to get Senatorial faces on tee vee during an election year.
Did ya catch this in Gammons' bio? Pretty cool.
A gifted musician, Gammons' debut CD, "Never Slow Down, Never Grow Old" was released on Rounder Records. With the assistance of a crack band of Boston rockers, Gammons trades in his typewriter for a Stratocaster and delivers a rousing set of vintage classics, originals, and rock obscurities -- all to benefit Theo and Paul Epstein's Foundation to be Named Later, a charity which raises funds and awareness for non-profit agencies serving disadvantaged youth in the Greater Boston area.
Gammons' vocals and guitar are featured, along with guests such as Theo Epstein, Juliana Hatfield, George Thorogood, Little Feat's Paul Barrere, Kay Hanley, and an all-star chorus consisting of Red Sox players Jonathan Papelbon, Kevin Youkilis, Trot Nixon, Lenny DiNardo and Tim Wakefield, former Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo, and NESN broadcaster Don Orsillo. Get more information from Rounder Records.
People may remember that George Mitchell was under serious consideration as a potential commissioner of Major League Baseball back in the mid-1990s after he retired from the U.S. Senate. He had the support of the vast majority of the owners, but MLB's selection process for commissioner required all candidates for that office to be vetted by a selection committee comprised of five owners. A veto cast by any one of those five would effectively kill the hiring of a prospective commissioner.
Mitchell had the support of four owners on that five-man committee.
The lone vote against him was cast by the owner of the Texas Rangers . . . a fella by the name of George W. Bush.
At the time, it was pretty much accepted that GWB was basically exacting his retribution for Mitchell's vindictive approach to dealing with the first Bush administration in Washington when Mitchell was the Senate majority leader.
The political machinations in Washington today may very well be a similar politically-driven process aimed at former Democratic senator Mitchell.
Hah! Never would have suspected that Peter Gammons was a Rock-Star when not covering Baseball! LOL! Thanks for pointing that out.
Not only is Peter from Massachusetts, he is a graduate of the Boston Globe.
And, make no mistake, he has always been an orthodox liberal. Politically, sportswriters are indiscernible from the rest of the newsroom.
This background makes his support of Bush, as opposed to Clinton, all the more significant.
In 1994 there was a vacancy on the Supreme Court and George Mitchell wanted the slot, but Clinton persuaded him to stay in the Senate to push through some important piece of legislation (I forget what it was, but it never made it). Breyer got the SC seat; Olympia Snowe now has Mitchell’s Senate seat.
What I am enjoying is hearing all of the sports talk radio callers saying how stupid the representatives and senators sound. They sound this stupid on everything but the average American doesn’t know enough about other issues to know that.
The GOP supported Clemens because they knew that this was a democrat led witch hunt. Waxman wanted to get himself another trophy to mount on his office wall and a Texan, Republican like Clemens sounded just perfect. It’s not like Waxman (or anybody else) even wanted to call up Barry Bonds who is the most clear case of steriod use except for Canseco.
This entire event was a perjury trap for Clemens and Clemens is too naive and proud to take the advice of his lawyers and say absolutely nothing. Did Clemens lie? Almost certainly. But the GOP back him over the other felon-trainer because the trainer was the democrats appointed executioner and this entire hearing was about persecuting another Republican-type over something that wasn’t even a criminal act.
Waxman subpeonaed Clemens. Clemens DID NOT DEMAND that ‘he get his day in court’ as the media uniformly and falsely states. Clemens was ORDERED by a CONGRESSIONAL SUBPEONA to appear before Waxman and his row of axemen and once that occurred Clemens got his bravado on and challenged his executioners like a scene in High Noon. If you listened to the murderers row of liberal cronies attacking Clemens on that panel, you know that they were there for only one reason. There was no ‘public interest’ involved. This was a public execution.
That it took two weeks for Waxman (and his new butt-boy Tom Davis) to issue the request to the DOJ to charge Clemens is the only surprise in this. The request by the Government Oversight Committee to the DOJ request that they investigate and prosecute Clemens for perjury was already written by staffers weeks before the hearing even took place. This is why Waxmans staffers refused to allow Clemens to back out of this hearing. They had the trap all set up for Clemens and by the time Clemens attorneys convinced him that there was only one possible outcome of this hearings (Clemens being indicted) that Clemens attempted to call it all off and Waxmans henchmen weren’t about to grant him clemency.
Waxmans’ statement AFTER the hearing about how horrible this all was and how this ‘never should have happened’ and how ‘Clemens demanded that we hold these hearings’ was just the public CYA. Waxman is a political assassin. This is what he lives for. He is a 5’1” socialist Jew who happens to be incomparably unattractive in a congressional district where there are few Jews but there are lots of rich WASPs and celebrity types. Waxman does nothing for his district locally. His contribution to his district is by attacking, and occasionally destroying, the enemies of his liberal constituents. But the people he goes after have to be high profile and media worthy or his own constituents won’t know what he’s done and it won’t rate.
Republicans mostly backed Clemens in this matter not because they thought he was innocent but because they saw the travesty of justice which was being perpetrated in the name of partisan politics. They knew that there was absolutely ZERO PUBLIC INTEREST in this matter and no a damn thing which mattered to America about these hearings but that Waxman wanted to put another trophy on his wall. And they fought to keep that from happening in the only way that they could. Since no Republican, other than Tom Davis, had the power to block the committee from sending over the death sentence letter to the DOJ (who had FBI agents in the front row of the hearings since they already knew that they were going to be asked to prosecute Clemens), GOP members fought in the only way they could - on C-SPAN via their questions and remarks.
The idea that members of this committee on either side had any actual personal or public interest in the actual events occurring in that hearing is either naive or just uninformed. These hearings were for public television consumption only. It was a kangaroo court and a media circus. The interests of the democrat party were being served and not the American people. Only Tom Davis sided with the democrats to further their propaganda plans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.