Mukasey Should Balk At Pitcher Probe

Andrew Cohen: Department Of Justice Has More Important Tasks Than Finding If Clemens Lied

(CBS)  Attorney Andrew Cohen analyzes legal issues for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

---

Let’s turn our gunsights a bit in Washington.

A few weeks ago, we had them all aimed on Capitol Hill, on the House side, because we thought that the Congressional hearings into Roger Clemens’ steroid use were, well, gravely unimportant given the immense tasks that the legislators have before them this election year. Go get us a domestic surveillance bill instead, we cried, or at least do something about gas prices, or airline delays, or Social Security.

But on Wednesday Congress passed the Clemens’ butt - I mean buck - over to the Justice Department with a request that Clemens’ frequent and intermittently fervent denials about steroid use constitute perjury.

Now the legislators can slap their hands and say: “After wasting everyone’s time and making a former baseball legend look even more foolish than before, we’ve done all we can do here. Attorney General? Your turn!” And, indeed, it is the Justice Department’s turn to handle this small potato.

So let’s take aim at Justice and make virtually the same arguments - albeit with different facts to support them - we made about the Congress. Does our embattled Justice Department have anything better to do in the spring of 2008 than to prove that Roger Clemens was (or was not) injecting something into his butt (or having his trainer do it)?

The answer is a resounding “Yes!”

If anything, the Justice Department has more serious work to tackle than does Congress, if it wants to wrap up the Bush Era with a bang and not a whimper.

What else does the Attorney General have on his plate that’s more serious? Let me count the ways ...

How about trying to figure out why violent crime rates in American cities increased so much during Alberto R. Gonzales’ reign of error at the Department?

How about figuring out ways in which rural and suburban law enforcement agencies can better respond to the drug crises that are sprouting up in Middle America - beyond the glare of the networks and cable howlers?

Not enough? Still want the feds to spend thousands of hours tracking down Jose Canseco’s party guests? OK. I’d rather have the Justice Department investigating how it came to pass that, under the Terrorist Surveillance Program, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ended up with all those private domestic e-mails they weren’t supposed to have. The more thorough that investigation would be, the less likely we would see such a mistake happen again, correct?

Or how about devoting more personnel to giving us answers the Justice Department promised when it comes to the U.S. Attorney investigation, languishing now six months after Gonzales resigned as Attorney General?

How about making sure that Justice has enough people to vigorously pursue the investigation the department just launched last week into the question of who, precisely, authorized the simulated-death torture we now know as “waterboarding”?

Still not satisfied? How about the Justice Department looking a little more closely at the oil companies who keep jacking up our rates? Or the sleazebags who have set up loan-sharking fronts in the form of used-car dealerships? They prey on vulnerable immigrants who don’t know how illegal their loans can become. Or the villains in the sub-prime mortgage fiasco who - a generation after the S&L crisis - were able to game the market and foul up the economy.

Roger Clemens?!?

Memo to Mukasey: Don’t waste a penny of my tax dollars pursuing Clemens for perjury about steroids until you start prosecuting steroid users and sellers (which you can). Don’t waste an ounce of energy going after the Rocket until you’ve cleaned up the internal mess that Gonzales left in the wake of the U.S. Attorneys scandal. Don’t spend an hour of your time on Clemens until you are sure that the Justice Department is protecting - not limiting - the constitutional rights of citizens during this time of terror.

The Justice Department isn’t going to restore its tattered reputation by chasing down the likes of Roger Clemens. It is going to bring back respect by doing the tough, gritty work that the Justice Department used to be known for; the type of work that puts away in prison bad people while protecting good people in meaningful ways.

Is your life going to change if Clemens goes to the pokey? Of course not. But it could change if the Justice Department shuts down the meth lab that you didn’t know was operating in your neighborhood.

Congress just passed a hot potato over to the Justice Department. Mukasey and Company should simply drop it and move on - bigger spuds to fry, you might say.

[horse3farm]

Instead Mukaskey balked at investigating Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton, white house aides, regarding the firing of the US justices. I see that is not on your news site CBS...I guess the Bush Administration has got you in their pockets too.

For those interested, it is on the home pages of Fox and CNN.

Crooked CBS

[quatrops]

Kilohurtz makes a big issue about "committing perjury and obstructing justice" in the Clemens case and then (not surprisingly, considering his sad take on relative values) contradicts his own "logic" in citing the Clinton impeachment, which he sees as a matter of Clinton "getting some on the side".

So congress declared baseball "unique and important"?
That''s a good example of one area where I would agree with conservatives. The government should stay the heck out of our lives and deal with issues of GOVERNING. Does Kilohurtz think they did that because they were concerned about the moral values of kids in high school? Absurd! They did that so the already wealthy owners (read "campaign contributors") could avoid anti-trust legislation.

Although I agree that the Clinton impeachment trial was an absurd waste of congress'' time (about as silly as any more time being spent on Clemens) it was NOT about Clinton "getting some on the side" as Kilohurtz suggests (maybe HE got that news from the National Enquirer), it was about "perjury and obstructing justice" . . . the very issue that Kilohurtz thinks makes the Clemens issue so "important".

1% of US adults in PRISON! Don''t you think we''re overdoing it a bit, Kilohurtz?

[it_oldtimer]

Grown adults being paid obscene amounts just to play children''s games so that other brain-dead adults can sit on their butts all day and watch.

How incredibly pointless.

Don''t we all have far more pressing things to invest our precious time on than watching adults play childrens games?

[petesis]

They need to take this very seriously because if they do not, and it continues, it will soon be impossible for anyone to make a MLB squad without some kind of extra edge. Once that becomes the standard, how long before high school kids are doing steroids and HGH and claiming it is necessary for their "careers"?
It does seem frivolous for Congress to be pursuing this but they are actually doing their jobs as they are supposed to. There may be new legislation that comes out from this as well. In France and much of europe, after the scandals about cycling, it is now a crime to use dope. It is called "sporting fraud".

[kilohurtz]

What a bunch of tools. The investigation was started because baseball was granted special congressional immunity in return for its "unique and important" place in our society. Now, when it abuses that power and contaminates our children by encouraging illegal drug use, you think it is a waste of time for Congress to step in? You think it''s okay to commit perjury and obstruct justice? Pull your head out of the National Enquirer and take a look at how many kids at your local high school are ruining their lives because of scumbags like Clemens. This has a far more reaching impact than impeaching a president for getting some on the side.

[quatrops]

America has the highest incarceration rate of ANY (civilized?) country. One out of every 100 adult Americans is in prison! We''re WAY ahead of China! Make you feel good?

And you people want the Justice Dept. to spend time and money on this absurdity and put him in jail!! Oh yeah, that will really solve the country''s ills!

All of you who disagreed with the author get the second (multiple) TWITSPEAK of the week award. Get a life for God''s sake!

[roger3815]

Wasting American''s time and money: It''s what congress does best.

[quatrops]

When I read this story, I assumed there would be few, if any, comments. And I certainly didn''t expect anyone to disagree with the author.

Once again proving what a sad fool I am to expect common sense out of the American public. Then I look back and realize I never imagined GWB could POSSIBLY be re-elected in 2004!

Once again I''ve paid the price for giving insufficient attention to repeated surveys detailing the sad state of our educational institutions. Either that or the progenitors of the last several generations were wading in the shallow end of the gene pool!

[phillyguy82]

Next month you fools will want congress to investigate Brittany spears fitness as a mother.Chrissake....I''''m living in a cuntry of uneducated fools!!!!!
------------------------

Hahaha, pretty amusing post, I''m not even a baseball fan, and wish the government would stay out of people''s personal lives and stop wasting BILLIONS of tax dollars on pointless programs/projects/etc. All I am saying on this is that, I don''t feel bad for Clemens, if he was wrong, then he deserves what he gets. But yes I do agree that it''s a waste of time and money overall. But uneducated, I got a good laugh about that, only an small-minded fool would make such a statement.

[phillyguy82]

What a joke... Mr. Cohen, do you really think anyone reading this is going to agree with you? I am not saying Clemens is lying, I don''t know him, sounds like you must though. Why should Roger Clemens be immune to the laws the rest of the public must adhere to?

If he took steroids, fine, I don''t really care personally, but if he is going to make false statements to the public and lie to congress, he absolutely should be investigated and punished the same as anyone else. Countless kids look up to him as a role model, now maybe he didn''t ask for that, but that doesn''t matter, he''s made MILLIONS of dollars from the sport and owes the fans who pay his salary, and all the taxpayers who provide funds to build stadiums for him to play in, the truth.

Oh, and if you are really worried about your tax money being spent on the investigation, then ask your congressman/congresswoman to push for a resolution that would make Clemens personally responsible for the costs if he is not found innocent.