GOP uses the Clemens Investigation for Partisan Advantage

The democrats in congress just got screwed by the GOP again. It hasn't been in the headlines, but there has been a partisan bent to the hearings in congress today.

Democrats seem to want to press the issue of Clemens lying to congressional investigators while republicans are being skeptical of Brian McNamee's charges and pretty much ignoring the Pettite testimony.

Here are some opinions about todays testimony after the jump

Dan Burton rails into McNamee

11:41 a.m. ET
Well, now it gets interesting. Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) is grilling McNamee. He is grandstanding but making points. "Why did you keep the needles and gauze pads? You do this to all your employers?" McNamee said that he also kept evidence on Chuck Knoblauch, which is now in the possession of the feds. McNamee says he felt bad about keeping them. "Gee whiz, are you kidding me?" Burton explained. Burton is really going after him. He asks if he is lying about Canseco's party. McNamee says he is not. Burton is reading from a Daily News story in 2006 in which he claimed never to have injected HGH into Clemens and Pettitte. McNamee says he lied. Burton is reading a series of statements in which McNamee denies having anything to do with steroids. Burton concludes by saying he doesn't see evidence of Clemens lying and grills McNamee. "This is really disgusting. You are here as a sworn witness, and yet we have lie after lie after lie! I don't know what to believe! I know one thing I don't believe -- and that's you!"

SI notes the diference in how each party is treating Clemens.

12:15 p.m. ET
From SI.com's Jon Heyman: "The House Committee so far is splitting along party lies. Through their tough questioning of Clemens, the Democrats are showing support for McNamee's position, while Republicans have shown support for Clemens' denials. It seems that Republicans and Democrats have a tough time agreeing on many things, including Clemens."

Here again Tom Davis gives Clemens a tongue bath

1:41 p.m. ET
From SI.com's Jon Heyman: "The party-line division picked up after the break as Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) opened the second half by tossing some softball questions at Clemens and questioning the validity of McNamee's doctorate, but Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.) told Clemens that he thought his investigators were 'fishing for evidence'' that McNamee might have kept when they secretly recorded their conversation with McNamee. The Republicans and Democrats are pretty consistently disagreeing, with Democrats favoring McNamee and Republicans favoring Clemens."

Doesn't this sound familiar. My prediction - get ready for the GOP to use this in the 2008 congressional elections. They are building the case that the democrats are irresponsible in congress and just want to investigate everything to death.

Remember how republicans on the House Oversight and Govt Reform Committee treated Lorita Doan. Not to mention how house judiciary treated Alberto Gonzales.

Republicans Tom Davis (R-VA) and John Mica (R-FL) of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee were quick to offer air cover to Doan. Even as Doan joined Gonzales in claiming selective amnesia in the myriad GSA scandals, Mica thundered that "this was a fishing expedition." As the Doan scandal deepens, conservative claims of Democratic persecution of an African-American woman are almost certain to be forthcoming.

The GOP will not let the democrats have a win on ANYTHING!

•  Tip Jar

  by CTMET on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:16:30 PM PDT

  •  the whole thing is a sham to misdirect attention

    by TAPayne on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:21:07 PM PDT

    •  i have respect for mr waxman

      but do not understand why this is taking up the congressional time instead of the peoples business instead of investigating the crimes against the american people by the executive branch

      by TAPayne on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:23:03 PM PDT

      •  Seconded. What happened to 5 million emails?

        I can't bear to watch the hearings, they are so infuriating.

        It is appropriate that the GOP would align itself with a man who struts, preens and lies.  When he puffs himself up and says obviously false things, such as, "I don't give a rat's ass about the Hall of Fame," he sounds just like a Republican.  Around Boston, Clemens' nickname has been the "Texas Con Man" (TCM) for many, many years.

        Pick a topic.  Any topic.  The Republicans will be on the wrong side of it.

        by geomoo on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 02:28:39 PM PDT

  •  I'm listening to the C-SPAN.org

    rebroadcast and noticed this also.  What do the Reps. have to gain?  Defending the use of illegal drugs in the election campaign does not seem like a winner.

    I found Burtan's protestations about smearing the innocent especially rich in light of his extravaganza-like hearings trying to get Clinton on all the right wing fake accusations.

    by seeker on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:27:17 PM PDT

•  Yes, very clever of Repos to trick Waxman,

  the Democratic chairman of committee, into calling for hearings.

  by science first on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:19:14 PM PDT

  •  I told you all that Pelosi should have taken the

    hypnocoin from Boehner.. but you didn't listen.

    by RBH on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:49:13 PM PDT

•  I'm a big NewYork sports fan

  and watch Mike and Maddog sports radio show on Tv .....they are both republicans and say they are embarassed for their party today. Andy Pettite was Clemans best freind but PUT his values ahead of loyalty and told the truth

  by nevadadem on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:19:27 PM PDT

  •  Hmmmm I wonder what party affiliation Mike

    and Mike on ESPN are?

    by CTMET on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:28:37 PM PDT

    •  I say D and Indi, but who knows n/t

      by BWasikIUgrad on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:36:15 PM PDT

      •  Golic (R-ESPN)

        heard him defend Bush multiple times. Greenie likely D.

        by rscottrewak on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:44:09 PM PDT

        •  Greenie did wonder why this was on CSPAN3 this

          morning. He wanted to know how anything going on in congress could possibly be more important than this. He thought it should be on regular CSPAN.

          I guess he thinks its akin to ESPN versus ESPN2.

          by CTMET on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 02:20:11 PM PDT

•  The whole thing is a fucking joke

  It makes everybody look bad.  

  by johnny rotten on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:23:03 PM PDT

  •  bread and circuses

    by TAPayne on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:24:33 PM PDT

•  Red Herring!

  The whole "investigation" is a red herring to keep us out of hearings about Iraq WMD's and all the lies told before the occupation, along with the myriad of other concerns that SHOULD be investigated. Instead we get this and we're supposed to be involved with it like it makes a difference in my day which one is lying.

  Unless Bush and Cheney are being questioned, this takes a far back seat to anything that SHOULD be investigated and is a waste of time. We can't get a hearing about illegal activity by the gov't but we can sniff at syringes that were purportedly stuck in Clemen's butt!

  Jeeze! We're so easy to dupe!

  by DevonTexas on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:24:23 PM PDT

•  The baseball hearings are replacing FISA coverage

  Whoever scheduled the baseball hearings was a Republican, or a Democrat listening to one.

  This baseball steroids 'who the fuck cares' coverage is taking up all the air in the room. I was up all night last, and the baseball stuff was repeated over and over and over and over again. FISA, nothing.

  NOTE TO DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS: If the Republicans suggest ANYTHING, do the opposite. They are not your friends. Those days are over.

  by Village expects idiot home soon on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:29:24 PM PDT

  •  What makes you think that our Democratic

    majority didn't already know they were going to stick a shank in our backs with the FISA vote and decided to hold these bullshit hearings today in the hopes that we'd all forget about the assault?

    After all the shit the Democratically controlled 110th Congress has hurled at us, time and again... I am no longer willing to just chalk everything up to the republicans anymore.

    "Our" team controls the schedules.

    "Our" team controls which bills come up for votes.

    It's "our" team that is allowing this bullshit to happen and I'm goddamned sick to death of blaming the republicans for things that our own freaking party has a hand in!

    We need to start opening our eyes to the way things ARE and stop seeing things as how we wish they would be.

    by MichiganGirl on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:44:00 PM PDT

    •  OMG-No it hadn't.

      They probably planned it together.

      I was thinking today, we need to take a list of the Dems who voted yes, and narrow that down to a list of Dems we can replace.

      I have 2 senators on that list, Pryor and LIncoln. I don't see any way of getting rid of them. Hillary got 75% of the vote in the primary here. My rep will surely vote yes as well. Ex-marine.

      I'm in AR, and we have an amazing amount of ammo and bombing making going on here. It was a secret until one of the magazines blew up. Turns out, there were 350+ of these bunkers in an underground grid of several hundred acres. The explosion distributed 18,000 straws of C-4 over 10s of acres. Who knew they stored C-4 in straws?

      by Village expects idiot home soon on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 02:31:17 PM PDT

•  To anyone..

  Republican or Democrat that feels that this is a waste of governmental resources and time...I would agree with them on that point...total waste of time and resources.

  by dvogel001 on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:29:35 PM PDT

•  Public Interest, People

  Baseball has a lot more fans than FISA does, so Congress of course wants to butt it head into the steroid issue.

  But I too found it very strange that the GOP Congress members went after McNamee while the Dems focused on Clemens.  But maybe it isn't so strange after all.  For those of you who don't follow baseball that much, you may be interested in knowing that Roger Clemens has espoused right wing Republican political bias during his career.  So maybe the GOP members in Congress were going after his accuser as a "thank you" payback for his support of the Republican party over the years.

  by tailor324 on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:35:42 PM PDT

  •  Clemens is also an idiot,

    as anyone who saw his dumbass on 60 Minutes would attest to. Coincidence? I think not. But hey, he is a real "family man," that is all that matters, right?

    by rscottrewak on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 01:46:43 PM PDT

    •  and God fear-uhhn. n/t

      by kulshan on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 02:10:34 PM PDT

      •  ... and a Yankee (worst of em all)

        by CTMET on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 02:21:18 PM PDT

  •  Yes

    I think that's all there is to the partisan split.  Roger is a Republican, and they were protecting a high-profile guy who speaks well of Republicans.  Right and wrong had nothing to do with the attack on McNamee.

    by Fortschreitend on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 02:24:08 PM PDT

•  Clemens Is A Liar That Needed To Be Exposed.

  Republicans covering for him is no surprise have you ever heard the saying:

  "IT TAKES A CROOK TO KNOW A CROOK"

  by DFutureIsNow on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 02:32:08 PM PDT

  •  Two potenital liars

    ... and you still can't tell which one is telling the truth.  I heard nothing today which convinced me either one was or was not telling the truth.

    by pkohan on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 03:18:04 PM PDT

    •  I Trust Andy Petite. You Just Dont Risk Being

      Prosecuted for perjury if you are not telling the truth.

      by DFutureIsNow on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 04:02:16 PM PDT

      •  Well, there were two people up there

        ... and both had the potential to perjure themselves... and we still don't know who it was... even if Pettitte thought he was telling the truth.

        by pkohan on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 05:36:51 PM PDT

•  Clemens is very rich. That clear it up?

  They protect their own.

  by fool me once umm on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 02:51:53 PM PDT

•  Waxman judge, jury, & executioner

  Congressional hearings are not a court of law, but Waxman seemed to think he was the law today with his final pronouncement from the bench, even shouting down Clemens's affirmative defense during his closing statement.

  I actually think the GOP side of the argument will be borne out to be the correct side of this particular case involving steroids.

  by pkohan on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 03:09:57 PM PDT