Roger Clemens: Why Is It a Case of Red or Blue?
Am I the only one puzzled about the way response to the trials and tribulations of Roger Clemens seems to be split along party lines? The issue, of course, is whether or not he used steroids and human growth hormones. He swore under oath that he didn’t and, for the most part, Republican politicians have been vocal in their support of Clemens. Democrats, on the other hand, seem to believe he lied under oath and did use those substances. (So do a very large majority of baseball fans, by the way … most Yankee fans being the exceptions.) That aside, I can’t for the life of me figure out why this has become a partisan issue. Anyone got any ideas?
Don’t forget Clemens’ former trainer testified at those hearings, too — so one of them was clearly lying under oath. Roger’s from TX, and he’s very vocally conservative. Sen. George Mitchell, whose report fingered Clemens, is a Democrat. The Dems don’t like seeing their big anti-steroid push questioned like this (especially since Clemens refused to talk to Mitchell’s investigators, even when he knew what they’d been told about him); the Repubs … I don’t know. Want to make the Dems look bad? Don’t like one of their champions looking bad? (Secretly like the Yankees?) Why it falls out so strongly along party lines is weird, though.