Several commentators noted the partisan debate at the Roger Clemens versus Brian McNamee Congressional steroid hearings. Republicans supported Clemens; Democrats supported McNamee. After reading the transcripts, I agree.
Mike Fish of ESPN noted:
Committee members from the Republican side of the aisle at times fawned over the seven-time Cy Young Award winner and tore into the credibility of Brian McNamee, who claims to have injected Clemens with anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, calling Clemens’ former trainer everything from a lying ex-cop to a drug dealer with a phony doctorate.
Conversely, the Democrat members of the committee — led by chairman Henry Waxman of California and Elijah Cummings of Maryland — went after Clemens, trying to trap him in lies and raising the specter by hearing’s end of the possibility that he had perjured himself before Congress.
Christine Daniels of the Los Angeles Times tried to make sense of this partisanship since Democrats and Republicans behaved as if “their party affiliation was a logo emblazoned across a cap and jersey” on McNamee and Clemens.”
Clemens is rich, arrogant and throws right. Of course the Republicans have his back.
McNamee is a working stiff. He drew a paycheck from Clemens. He doesn’t have anything close to Clemens’ fame or clout. He’s an underdog. Of course that’s a cause the Democrats will support.
Rooting for the New York Yankees has been likened to rooting for U.S. Steel or owning a yacht. Clemens has pitched for U.S. Steel. Twice. He won two World Series with the Yankees, in 1999 and 2000. He returned for a second, less pleasant stint in 2007. In between spins on the yacht, he led the Houston Astros to the World Series in 2005, for the first and only time.
Houston is GOP territory. Houston has an airport named after George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president and a longtime friend of Clemens. In 1991, while still pitching for the Boston Red Sox, Clemens visited Bush’s home in Kennebunkport, Maine, and pitched horseshoes with the president. They were paired on the same side, to borrow a phrase, two against two. No surprise there: They won.
Clemens testified that after his name was mentioned in the Mitchell Report, Bush phoned him while Clemens was hunting to offer support.
George Mitchell: a prominent figure within the Democratic Party.
Hunting: a popular leisure-time activity among Republicans.
And of course, Richard Emery, attorney for Brian McNamee offered this explanation:
Still, for the moment, it was Wednesday’s partisan rumblings that continued to echo. Richard Emery, who is one of McNamee’s lawyers, even predicted Thursday — somewhat sarcastically — that Clemens would be pardoned by President Bush before the possibility of a perjury charge even emerges, which is legally possible.
Clemens, like President Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, in Texas. In his testimony Wednesday, Clemens told the committee that the former president Bush had reached out to him after the Mitchell report was released and told him “to stay strong and hold your head up high.”
“It would be the easiest thing for George W. Bush,” to do, Emery said, “to say Roger Clemens is an American hero, Roger Clemens helped children.”
But my favorite explanation was attributed to Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert – quite simply Republicans support steroid users and Democrats support steroid dealers!
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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