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The Tragedy of the Clemens

Federal prosecutors have indicted former baseball star pitcher, Roger Clemens, for lying to Congress about his alleged use of steroids.

Whether Roger Clemens took steroids and whether, if he took steroids, his statistics need to be placed in a different light undoubtedly is proper banter for the sports pages.

This country has a drug problem but the focus of that problem is not the baseball diamond. There are - as I have said in this blog - more children watching baseball who are on performance enhancing drugs than there are players who play professional baseball. Pharmaceutical companies place drugs on the market that are not safe or effective, and then the companies proceed to misrepresent to the medical community and the public the truth about their products. Meanwhile, our health care systems bear the costs of paying for these products and the damage they cause.

Maybe it is a lot easier and more interesting - at least for the TV news as it currently exists in a withered state - to focus on Roger Clemens. Unfortunately, the “tragedy of the Clemens” is that there is indeed a real drug problem in this country and Roger Clemens has nothing to do with it. Congress and prosecutors need to focus their attention elsewhere. At the end of the day, a multi-million dollar trial of Mr. Clemens will do nothing more than embarrass a former baseball star who at worst made the mistake of not being candid about a subject that - probably from his perspective - should not be one of material public importance.

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Justice Denied

By Reuben Guttman

There are approximately 875 federal judicial slots, and approximately 90 openings, give or take. The President is not appointing judges quickly enough, and when he does submit nominations, the Senate is delaying their confirmation. Up on Capitol Hill, the Democrats are blaming the Republicans for holding up judicial nominations, while the Republicans counter that the Democrats are naming candidates unworthy of appointment.

Caught in the middle are those working men and women who need a fully staffed federal court system. Who is it that uses the federal judicial system? It is working people, shareholders, and consumers. Laws protecting the environment, employee savings, the rights of shareholders, and the rights of workers on the job are federal laws that for the most part get enforced in federal court. Those who seek to invoke these laws for their protection are not large corporate interests but working people. Cut back on the number of judges and justice is delayed. And, as the British Statesman William Ewart Gladstone was reported to have said: "Justice delayed is justice denied."

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Transparency in the Gulf

By Reuben Guttman

Ken Feinberg, who has been tasked to administer British Petroleum's $20 billion cleanup fund, may be one of the nation's great problem solvers, and by all accounts he is a decent guy. He took on the task of administering a 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund and he served as "Pay Czar," overseeing the salaries of Wall Street executives whose firms received bailout monies.

In contrast to the work he did with the 9/11 Fund, Mr. Feinberg recently announced that his foray into the Gulf is not free of charge. Aside from being compensated for his work in the Gulf, the New York Times has reported that he is flying around in a plane owned by British Petroleum.

Clearly, Mr. Feinberg deserves to be paid a handsome fee, and because his time is precious these days, it is understandable that he is not using commercial planes to ferry him from meeting to meeting. This does not mean that victims of the disaster do not need to know the score. How much is Ken Feinberg being paid and who is paying him? What is the deal he has with regard to the use of BP's aircraft?

Disclosing this information is really not about exposing a scandal as much as it is about creating the transparency that gives oil spill victims confidence in an individual who claims he is not beholden to BP or the White House.

The alternative to Mr. Feinberg's processes is a court system that is over-burdened in such a way that justice for the spill victims will not be swift. Despite its inefficiencies, however, our nation's judicial system was established to be open and impartial. It is designed this way because we recognize that the matter of due process and process devoid of conflicts of interest leads to results that are easier to accept. If Mr. Feinberg wants to convince spill victims that his processes have the same if not greater integrity than the judicial system he needs to makes some disclosures. If he does not make these disclosures, at some point he will lose the trust of the very victims he hopes to help. Mr. Feinberg has a lot to offer. He needs to make the right decision.

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New Rights to Blow the Whistle on Securities Fraud

By Reuben Guttman

Stocks and bonds are called securities. There is a cost to purchase securities and the cost is a factor of what the company says publicly about its product and its financial prospects. People either buy securities directly through brokers or they purchase them indirectly through their retirement plans. Some people think that only wealthy people own securities. The truth is that most Americans who participate in some form of retirement plan own stock at least indirectly.

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