Miguel Tejada Has Been Charged with Lying About Steroids

The U.S. economy is in ruins, unemployment is skyrocketing to unprecedented rates, America’s financial institutions and largest automakers have essentially imploded and the country needs nearly a trillion dollars to, hopefully, "bail it out." The Iranians are enriching uranium, there’s an election going on in Israel, the Russians are flexing their military muscle in the Western hemisphere and U.S. troops continue to die in what history will likely view as an unjust war. What’s a congressman to do? Well, quite naturally the best thing to do is to try to rid Major League Baseball of steroids. At least that’s what appears to be going on now as the long, slow wake of the Mitchell Report continues to reverberate as supposedly confidential steroid test results from 2003 have been leaked.

The latest victim is Miguel Tejada of the Houston Astros who, let’s make no bones about it, is a liar and a cheat. Ironically, however, the charge that he now faces is lying to Congress about steroids. He will appear in court on Wednesday and is expected to plead guilty. Tejada could face as much as a year in jail if he is convicted on the misdemeanor charge of making misrepresentations to Congress. This news comes quickly on the heals of confirmation that superstar New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez also tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, a charge that he has confirmed.

Taking a step back and, to be entirely frank, offering pure opinion on the matter, one has to wonder about this whole charade. Lying to Congress? Please. If that’s a crime then we need to start locking up some Congressmen. What we Americans REALLY hate is when Congress lies to US. Since that happens on a daily basis it has, perhaps, been swept under the rug a bit. Now, however, it appears that a number of congressmen have jumped on this can’t-lose bandwagon at a time when, presumably, their efforts could be better put to use elsewhere. Not able to resist the opportunity to make political hay, however, some just can’t help themselves. While they hypocritically chastise Tejada in the most public forum possible, one can’t help but thinking that deep down inside they’re all aware that it could easily be them on the stand – and that their transgressions run much deeper, and hurt most Americans much more, than does illegal drug use by a baseball player.