Why Do Americans Hate Congress?

Oh I don't know... Maybe because Congressmen spend more of their time on stupid PR-related stunts and less time on things that affect people's lives.

Today's topic: Senator Arlen Spector wants to know why the NFL destroyed the confiscated video tapes from the New England Patriots.

Why?
Who cares?
Isn't this a waste of time?
Why?

Let's see what the Senator had to say (quotes taken from the NY Times article):

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“That requires an explanation,” Specter said. “The N.F.L. has a very preferred status in our country with their antitrust exemption. The American people are entitled to be sure about the integrity of the game. It’s analogous to the C.I.A. destruction of tapes. Or any time you have records destroyed.”

“It’s the same old story,” Mr. Specter said. “What you did is never as important as the cover-up. This sequence raises more concerns and doubts.”

“I don’t think you have to have a law broken to have a legitimate interest by the Congress on the integrity of the game.” He added: “What if there was something on the tapes we might want to be subpoenaed, for example? You can’t destroy it. That would be obstruction of justice.

“It’s premature to make any suggestions until you know a lot more about the matter. We need to know what’s on those tapes.”

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I realize that the NFL is a multi-billion dollar business, and is very popular among citizens, thus draws much attention from Congressmen, who love to curry favor with the public for simple things. Even taking this into account, comparing the NFL destruction of the tapes to the CIA destroying interrogation tapes is either seriously overrating the importance of the NFL or giving very little weight to possible human rights violations.

Now, what exactly is Congress accusing the NFL of covering up? What could they possibly discover from this line of investigation? The Patriots were accused of breaking the rules and cheating, evidence of such was found, and they were punished. Spector clearly does not want the tapes to see if the Patriots were punished unfairly, he's saying the NFL is hiding something.

This whole thing stinks and it makes me so irritated I can't even gather my thoughts clearly.

Last thought: Maybe they should be checking out ExxonMobil, who also in today's paper, have been noted to post the highest profits ever for a US corporation, despite the fact that we are also heading towards a recession. That doesn't seem suspicious to anyone??

In the words of the famous Charlie Brown, "AAAAARRRRRRGH!"