The Witch Hunt Continues

Before I even had a chance to accept or decline my invitation to question Major Leaguers with Congress on January 16th, they went ahead and moved the date on me to February 13th.  Speculation says they thought I had a scheduling conflict and shifted the date to accommodate me.  That’s just ridiculous.The real reason Congress has pushed back the date is to gather more evidence in regards to Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and everyone’s favorite criminal, Chuck “Twelfth Row” Knoblauch.  The three current and former Yankees will be deposed, under oath, around the 16th, after which members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will attempt to dig deeper into their stories and question them again, in public, on February 13th.  MLB commish Bud Selig, players union head Donald Fehr, and former Senate majority leader George Mitchell of the famed Mitchell report will all speak before Congress on January 15th, hopefully under oath.What is Congress trying to achieve here?  Digging further into the facts surrounding Clemens and Pettitte implies some question as to the validity of the Mitchell report.  Clemens may be as responsible for that as anyone with the racket he’s made since it’s release.  As shoddy as the evidence presented in the report was, I seriously doubt that members of Congress are going to call a former Senate Majority leader to the carpet and label his report as incomplete, which means the focus of the inquiry will be on the players.Again.I hope Congress takes an objective look at the Mitchell report and notices not only the flimsy circumstantial evidence, but the lack of action taken by the commissioners office in the late nineties and beginning of this decade.  Its likely that Bud commissioned the Mitchell report after threats from Congress in their first inquiry, when Selig was chastised for what little headway MLB and the players union had made in stopping usage in the sport.  Selig seemed to design this report to not only stave off Congress, but deflect criticism from the head office and drop it squarely on the players.   What was supposed to close a chapter on a dark period of the game instead threw incredibly expensive gasoline on the fire.If Congress feels the need to intercede, why are they beating this dead horse?  The Mitchell report has already dragged these three players into the limelight and tattooed them with the steroids branding iron.  Is it necessary for Congress to investigate what has already been investigated?  It almost appears as if they want to put Clemens on trial, or give him some rope to hang (perjure) himself, since there are no criminal proceedings that will take place.  And what will come of this testimony?  Is the hope that Pettitte will testify under oath that he had knowledge of Clemen’s steroid use?  How could Congress ever prove what Pettitte did or didn’t know?  And what action does Congress plan on taking with the information they receive?  Are they looking to bring criminal charges against Clemens?Congress would be better served by looking beyond the report to see what other use may have occurred and how such rampant use was allowed to happen over an extended period of time.  As stated in an earlier post, MLB had plenty of notice in the summer of 2000 that steroids were in four clubhouses throughout the majors and little action was taken to look beyond the incidents themselves.Instead of dumping all of the blame on the players, who saw their peers get arrested for possession without facing any punishment from the league, they should start from the top down.  I don’t know what Bud Selig hoped to gain from the Mitchell report except a scapegoat in the form of the players.  Maybe Congress can shed a little more light on Bud’s responsibility and call off the witch hunt.