Over the past few years, our members of Congress have developed an odd habit of poking their noses into professional sports. It began in 2005 when Congress subpoenaed Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro and others to testify about their use of steroids while playing Major League Baseball. When the Mitchell Report on the use of steroids in professional baseball was released last year, President Bush personally commented on it. This month, Roger Clemens was subpoenaed to testify about his use of steroids in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The event was a partisan spectacle; Democrats questioned Clemens tougher than their Senate counterparts had questioned Michael Mukasey during his Attorney General nomination hearing, and Republicans praised him as if he were a war hero. Also this month, Congress moved beyond professional baseball to football, when Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania demanded a personal meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss the New England Patriots’ long history of cheating.

Now, I personally care about these issues, because I’m a sports fan and I can’t stand cheating. (I even wrote a column on “Spygate” just two weeks ago.) But when I heard that senators and representatives were taking it upon themselves to investigate the issue, I couldn’t help but wonder if there were more important priorities for Congress.

Of course, our elected officials in Congress have defended their inquiries. They claim that they are investigating the use of steroids among baseball stars because they are worried about the example it might set for children who look up to them. And Sen. Specter told the Associated Press that he was looking into the Patriots cheating scandal because “we have a right to honest football games.”

Don’t be fooled. These aren’t the real reasons that our representatives in Washington are involving themselves in professional sports. Exposing baseball players as steroid users does nothing but show young people that even the heroes they worship had to use steroids to succeed. And Arlen Specter cannot truly believe that not only do the American people have a right to watch honest football games but that it is his personal responsibility to protect that right.

Our elected officials do this for pretty simple reasons: they want to be on television more often, they want to meet professional athletes and they simply want to become involved in the world of sports (which many of them most likely were kept out of as children). All of this can be seen in the way that members of Congress publicly dramatize the issue and gawk over the athletes like children at the ballpark. After Roger Clemens’ hearing, he signed autographs for congressional staffers, and Arlen Specter was more than happy to theorize to media outlets that the Patriots may have cheated against his hometown favorite Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl and the Pittsburgh Steelers in playoff games.

What has been accomplished by all of this? In any of these cases, has Congress succeeded in its mission to protect children or the integrity of the games? Their hearings and meetings are merely media spectacles that serve no real purpose. Why, then, is all of this necessary? With major problems such as war, America’s tactics in the war on terrorism, the slipping economy, poverty, the environment and countless others facing the country (and the world), how can this be such a high priority? And how are our elected representatives not held responsible for their extreme wastefulness of time and resources on these issues of extraordinarily minor importance?

The questions of whether baseball players have injected steroids and whether the New England Patriots cheated in the Super Bowl ought to be left to sports writers and ESPN. It is not the job of the United States Congress to investigate these issues. Our representatives need to stop being fans and start acting like elected officials in the American legislature.

Altin is a senior in Arts & Sciences and a Forum editor. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

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