January 10, 2008

Strike Out

Let's set the scene: There's a war on, against an enemy determined to erase Western civilization's liberty, economic system, and religious diversity and replace it with a 13th-century Islamic caliphate. The American economy upon which 300 million people depend for food, clothing, shelter and their family's future sits teetering between continuing 52 straight months of growth or sliding into a possible recession. The country has a bejillion-dollar debt and a Congress determined to spend our grandchildren's money. We're overrun with illegal immigrants because Uncle Sam can't control its borders.

So what does the Democratic Congress think it needs to do?

You guessed it! Focus the full weight of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the most powerful investigative panel in Congress, to find out whether the great baseball pitcher Roger Clemens used steroids.

What a joke. No wonder the Democrat Congress' approval rating is right down there with something else that ends in roids.

As for Clemens and steroids, I don't particularly care if he took them. Clearly there are baseball players who have used steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. Nobody who paid any attention to baseball over the past decade or so was surprised by the Mitchell report. Nobody.

And nobody got hurt by players' use of such drugs, except the players who put themselves at considerable risk of a variety of health problems later in life by using steroids.

Baseball fans weren't hurt - they enjoyed watching the athletes, even the ones they were pretty sure were using steroids. Baseball team owners didn't get hurt - enhanced players resulted in more people buying tickets, programs, hot dogs and beer. TV ratings didn't suffer. Nobody got hurt. Nor is the future security, prosperity and liberty of America affected one iota by steroid use in baseball. Determining whether Roger Clemens is telling the truth in denying he took steroids will not make America more secure, more prosperous or more free, no matter what the answer is.

So why is the Democrat Congress wasting time on this?

Because either they don't have a clue about how to really solve real problems, or they know their preferred "solutions" - generally higher taxes, more regulation, and less emphasis on security - will get them tossed out at the next election, or they really don't want to solve problems because that would take away the issues upon which they plan to run for re-election.

Instead of hauling Clemens before Congress to hammer him with questions about performance-enhancing drugs, the Democrat Congress ought to haul themselves before the mirror and question why their own performance has been so utterly and completely dismal.