Our federal authorities are targeting the very core of American corruption: baseball player Roger Clemens. Clemens reportedly will be indicted for perjuring himself before Congress in a 2008 steroids hearing. Really? A druggy baseball player gets a federal indictment?

Perhaps some of you remember catching pieces of Clemens' testimony before a House committee in 2008, thinking, "Why does Congress give a shit about this? Baseball steroids? C'mon." Hour after hour, trying to pin down the exact time that Clemens left some golf course and went to Jose Conseco's party. Did he stop at home first to change clothes? Well?? This was all of great concern to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Usually the whole point of congressional hearings is to lie your ass off until cocktail hour, without any penalty. But this baseball case must have been too important for the normal rules. From the New York Times:

The indictment comes nearly two and half years after Clemens and his former trainer Brian McNamee testified under oath at a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, directly contradicting each other about whether Clemens had used the banned substances.

The committee held the hearing in February 2008, just two months after McNamee first tied Clemens to the use of the substances in George J. Mitchell's report on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. After Mitchell released the report, Clemens launched an attack on McNamee, saying he made up the allegations.

Still... it's just baseball, you guys.

[Image via AP]