Under Bush, the Texas Rangers were a crackhouse for juiced players

[Cocoa]

http://www.counterpunch.org/zirin08032005.html

Under Bush, the Texas Rangers were a Crackhouse for Juiced Players

A close compatriot of President Bush squats in a scandal so malodorous it led news shows from coast to coast. It's a scandal that some say is too hot for Bush to comment on. But there was the President, speaking without a stammer or stutter on this issue of pressing national concern.

There was only one curious twist. The scandalized bosom buddy was not the bosomy Karl Rove, but Baltimore Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro. Yes, in an era of war and economic crisis, Bush took time to rush to the defense of a four-time All-Star who has become the highest profile casualty of Major League Baseball's steroid testing program.

Bush called Palmeiro a "friend" and said, "He's testified in public , and I believe him.... Still do." Presidential lickspittle Scott McClellan also made clear at a White House press briefing that Palmeiro has the full support of the Oval Office. It no doubt will puzzle future generations (or present ones, for that matter) why the President felt compelled to comment on what a 40 year old ballplayer may or may not have ingested. But the reasons are clear enough. This is a case of how the Bush administration's Politics of Distraction have turned around to nip the President in the tush. It all began at the January 2003 State of the Union address when Bush inexplicably took time to talk tough on steroids. As New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady grinned next to the First Lady, Bush put the plague of steroids on the front burner of the national consciousness. This was Politics of Distraction 101, a classic ploy to give the public something to chew over instead of those two pesky countries the US armed forces happened to be occupying.

<snip>

If we are now to accept Canseco's book as holy writ, we should also remember that his Texas Rangers team had an owner named George W. Bush who Canseco describes as "most certainly knowing" that the players were on the juice. This went wildly underreported when the book was released, largely because Canseco's credibility was in constant question. Now that Canseco has morphed into Honest Abe, we should start asking whether Bush should receive the next congressional subpoena about steroids in sports. We should ask what Bush actually knows and when did he know it. We should press Palmeiro on what his friend in the owner's box, the former cheerleader from Yale, did and did not allow. We should take these Politics of Distraction, which Bush hoisted into our lives and drop the whole stinking, steaming, anabolic load on his front door.

[lumpy]

1. "bosomy Karl Rove"

I love it.

[yankeedem]

2. Just protecting a campaign contributor, that's all

http://www.newsmeat.com/sports_political_donations/Rafael_Palmeiro.php

[baby_bear]

3. This is pretty funny

Also from Zirin's article:

<snip>
Palmeiro's state of disgrace also means that we are now treated to the sight of Canseco, last seen living with Omarosa and Bronson "Balki" Pinchot on VH1's "The Surreal Life", posturing like Abe Lincoln, parading around talk shows saying things like (and I love this quote) "Palmeiro test proves that almost everything in my book is true."
</snip>

b_b

[Doctor_J]

4. * is nothing but a jock-sniffing junkie himself

who was probably drunk durin gthe entire time he owned the Rangers. Don't foget how he raped the TX taxpayers for his new stadium.

[wli]

5. any explanations for the Henry Lee Lucas clemency?

No idea what may or may not be happening there, but if Bushler's "favors to friends" pattern of behavior is involved, something juicy may well come out.

[PurityOfEssence]

6. He's cheated on everything for his entire life

Junior wouldn't know a scruple if it jumped out of his highball at him. The guy cheats, bullies and uses every unfair advantage he can manage, and he's still a supreme failure at everything he tries.

The Texas Rangers venture was the only business deal of his that wasn't a colossal failure, and it was premised on using connections and governmental pressure to cheat people out of their land for a stadium. He and his cronies purposefully bought much more land than they needed so it could be sold off later at a huge profit after the stadium was built.