Memo to Congress: Stop kidding yourselves...or stop lying about your intentions.

[Moose Milligan]

From an earlier article about the hearings and the steroid thing in general:

Said Marin: "We're not into 'gotcha.' This is a pretty thorough and comprehensive report from Senator Mitchell. Members of Congress think it's important to speak to the findings and recommendations. And if there are high-profile players who are taking shots at that report, then we need to hear from them, too."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3181689

What a steaming load of BS.

From today's article about the postponement:

Congress wants to be prepared when Roger Clemens and his former trainer, Brian McNamee, head to Capitol Hill.

Oh really? Prepared for what? If they're not playing "gotcha" as they claimed earlier, then they can just ask a few casual questions, right? What are they pushing this back an entire month for?

The House hearing involving Clemens, McNamee and Andy Pettitte was postponed Wednesday from Jan. 16 until Feb. 13, giving lawmakers more time to gather evidence and to coordinate their investigation with the Justice Department.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3188417

Oh, ok. But I thought this wasn't about "gotcha". So what do they need to gather evidence for?

I could go down the whole article, but it just kind of irks me that Congress is saying one thing, but clearly doing another. They deny that it's a "witch hunt" but it clearly is.

If it weren't, they wouldn't be gathering as much evidence as they can and putting these all time greats (Clemens) and recognizable names (Pettite, Knoblauch) on the spot and making them take oath.

I wish they'd come out and say what their true intentions are.

[Migrant Redbird]

According to the USA Today, the hearing on January 16th will proceed, but will be limited to questioning of MLB and Players Association representatives.

The Justice Department requested that the testimony of Radomski be deferred until after his sentencing on February 8th. Since Radomski's appearance was being deferred, the decision was made to take depositions from him, Clemens, McNamee, Pattitte, and Knoblauch first, then have them appear before Congress along with Radomski.

Politicians will always play politics, but there were valid reasons for the delay, and for the taking of depositions in advance. Investigators will have time to reconcile anything new that comes up in the depositions and witnesses will be constrained to keep the two accounts consistent.

The lawyers here could probably provide better rationale.