I usually don’t like to write about what everyone else is writing about on a regular basis because, you know, there are a lot of people smarter than me to get your current events from.  However, every once in a while I just can’t resist.  Now’s one of those times.

We’ve all read or heard about Roger Clemens’ appearance on the Hill yesterday.  What I’d like to focus on is the fact that my Congresscritter, Virginia Foxx (R-NC 5) is on the committee that the Rocket testified before and her behavior was chronicled by none other than Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy.  From his column:

There was plenty more jock-sniffing. Representative Danny K. Davis,
Democrat of Illinois, told Roger, "It was a pleasure meeting you last
week." Representative William Lacy Clay, Democrat of Missouri, asked
Roger what uniform he plans to wear into the Hall of Fame.
Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, produced
four photographs of Clemens, a progression dating to his Red Sox days,
and insisted, "You appear to be the same size."

Good observation,
Ginny. That’s like saying Michael Jackson’s features haven’t changed
since he posed for the cover of "Thriller."

Oy.  And then there’s this comment from "Glenn Aspaugh" on a post I wrote earlier this week about Rep. Foxx:

Dear Representative Foxx , I would really like to know why Congress
feels compelled to waste my taxpayer $$ which by the way are
considerable, on delving into allegations of steriods in baseball. If
I’m not mistaken Medicare and Medicaide are shortly headed toward
bankruptcy ,we’re in the middle of a war, and there still has been no
real immigration reform. Yet yesterday I see Roger Clemons getting
grilled before Congress wasting my tax $$ answering questions about his
alleged steriod use. Frankly WHO CARES?? This is a great example of why
the American public is sick and tired of Washinton politics and
wasteful spending. It would be refreshing to see some REAL problems
getting solved for a change. Thank you for your time. Glenn Alspaugh

I’m with you Glenn. Now of course this isn’t the first time that Rep. Foxx has been taken to the woodshed for some comments. Here’s a classic from last year, after returning from a tour in the summer of ’06 to pre-surge Iraq (editorial comments were mine):

The war in Iraq is
going well, Iraqi government officials are determined to have a united
government, and American soldiers are satisfied with their equipment
and their mission, said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, who visited Iraq
yesterday and Sunday…

Foxx and other members
of the congressional delegation stayed with troops overnight in a
military compound in Baghdad that is one of Saddam Hussein’s former
palaces and had lunch together yesterday. (Ed. Comment: Sure she got a real good idea of what the situation on the ground looked like from there)…

Yesterday, after
Foxx’s visit, there were several kidnappings in Baghdad, the latest in
a string of sectarian violence that has escalated in recent months.

Foxx said she did
not see any evidence of this (Ed. See comment above). but said that the government officials,
particularly al-Bolani, are committed to making sure "the terrorists
don’t create a civil war."…

Ideally, she said,
military leaders and government officials told her they hope to have
Baghdad "secure" and a "place where people can feel safe" by the end of
the year. (Ed. She really bought this?)

There have been
reports that American military personnel do not have adequate supplies
or that their morale is low. Foxx said that her meetings with soldiers
did not support this. She said that at one point she asked the
soldiers, while their supervising officers were not within earshot, in
hopes to get the most honest answer, and they told her they were fine.

"There was no sense of any problems," she said, "There was no indication of unhappiness." (Ed.
Oh come on, in the private sector that would be like a VP going around
her CEO to bitch to the Board of Directors.  It ain’t gonna happen).

Now after the surge some of these comments don’t seem so absurd, but at the time they sure did.  And the fact that she took the anecdotal evidence of speaking to soldiers out of earshot of their C.O.’s as some sort of definitive evidence that morale was good is borrowing directly from the play book of her idol GWB when he said he’d looked into Vladimir Putin’s soul and liked what he saw. 

I’m thinking that if you own a used-car lot or are looking to unload some Florida swampland you really want Rep. Foxx to come shopping at your place.