Peanuts, Crackerjacks and Steroids

The hottest topic right now in the sports world isn't the NCAA Tournament or the arrival of baseball's opening day. Steroids is the burning issue and the scheduled House Government Reform Committee's hearings this Thursday. The committee has invoked its jurisdictional powers to conduct investigative hearings into matters that they legislate or could possibly legislate. Baseball players have been issued subpoenas and must appear under threat of a contempt of Congress resolution.

Anabolic steroids help build body tissue and mass in order to enhance athletic performance. In low doses, the drug has medicinal purposes. But athletes take higher doses to achieve the desired effect. Use of the drug can result in serious side effects. Eventually the use of the drug trickles down to the high school level as junior athletes vie for the edge necessary to win a scholarship. Aside from all this, the drug is an illegal controlled substance.

The committee has cited two major reasons for the necessity of the hearings. First, the problem of the illegal use of steroids has been known to baseball for some time and that they have failed to resolve the matter. Secondly, we must protect the children who view the players as role models. The same basic argument was proposed and the subject of another Congressional investigation into the use of medicinal marijuana. Distribution of marijuana is illegal under federal law and states can not regulate its use overriding federal law. Also, we need to protect the kids from the conflicting information about drugs. Maybe drug companies were irritated?

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va) and Rep Henry Waxman (D- Ca) recently appeared together on Meet the Press looking like a loving couple at the beginning of a reality TV show. Bi-partisan results they advanced. United on the issue. It wasn't so much that they were united on the steroid issue as much as they were on the delight and glee they would take on citing with contempt any millionaire ballplayer who declined to play in their home park.

As I said before, the Committee has the right to conduct these hearings and we must genuflect to them in that regard. The problem rests with the fact that a federal grand jury in California is currently involved with investigating a drug company and the distribution of steroids. As such, the hearings might in fact impede the progress of the grand jury. Anyone subpoenaed by the Committee and a witness before the grand jury would have to be granted immunity from prosecution so as not to violate their Constitutional rights. It has happened before. Remember Iran-Contra? Oliver North's conviction was overturned due to testimony before a committee. So why conduct the hearings? It would seem that the Justice Department is more proficient in prosecuting a case.

Seems that the glowing picture of Davis and Waxman on the news front hasn't always been all roses. In a July 27, 2004 letter from Waxman to Davis, Waxman accuses Davis and his predecessor, Dan Burton, of being a slight bit selective in their decisions on who to investigate. Davis and Burton were keen to investigate matters concerning Democrats, but shied away from Republican wrongdoing. How ironic that excuses for their lack of diligence rested on the fact that Justice Dept. investigations might be compromised and that a redundant investigation would be counterproductive to legislative resources.

http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/07/ale04021.html

So what is the priority of baseball and steroids when there are so many other fish to fry? What next? Corked bats?