So Roger Clemens now finds himself facing significant jail time for lying to Congress about steroid use.
Fine.
If he did it — lying and juicing up — he needs to pay the appropriate penalty.
But for Congress to be getting huffy about lies, of all things, is a bit rich.
What happens when Congress — institutionally and member by member — lies to the people?
It happens, of course, every day.
Yes, steroid use is wrong — it’s a form of cheating, simple as that.
And yes, perjury is beyond the pale.
But The Rocket fizzled a long time ago — and congressmembers lie and cheat regularly and reflexively.
This is the same Congress that:
* Seems ready to merely reprimand Charlie Rangel — before his trial has even begun — for what in the real world is considered cheating on taxes, violating real-estate laws and abusing one’s office for personal gain.
* Turned a blind eye to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd’s getting a sweetheart deal from the subprime-mortgage giant Countrywide.
* Tolerates Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens, who claims he “forgot” to list personal loans totaling $55,000 on his financial-disclosure forms.
* Includes at least a half-dozen members who received hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions from lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti, the ex-aide to the late John Murtha (D-Pa.) who was indicted by the feds two weeks ago.
If only Clemens had won, say, a House seat and then started lying and cheating.
Congress might have respected that.