House panel finds time to focus on steroids

With events in the past few days leading to voting in South Carolina and Florida, among other places, the public is becoming keenly aware that politicians like to talk.

The chatter also extends to Congress where the word “hearings” is becoming a vehicle to mount a soap box, especially when TV cameras and reporters are on the scene.

As an example of what Congress does with its time during these active days, Grumpy Editor spotted an upset citizen, Roger Anderson, who wrote one of the “Letters to the Editor” that appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday.  He pointed out:

“We have a $9 trillion national debt, an invasion that is costing us hundreds of billions of dollars, and Social Security and Medicare are in the toilet.  What is Congress doing?  Concentrating on drug use in major league baseball.”

He was referring to a Jan. 15 hearing in which the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform examined ex-Maine Democrat Senator George Mitchell’s report, “The Illegal Use of Steroids in Major League Baseball.”

Among future hearings on the subject, and certain to attract further attention, is Roger Clemens' Feb. 5 appearance before the panel headed by chairman Henry A. Waxman (D., Calif.).

Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner who pitched for the New York Yankees last season, is expected to refute allegations he used performance-enhancing drugs outlined in the Mitchell report.

This comes ahead of scheduled congressional hearings Feb. 13.

Others scheduled to face the committee over the next two weeks include former Yankees infielder Chuck Knoblauch, Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, former Clemens trainer Brian McNamee and one-time New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski.