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May 20, 2009
House Committee Report on Wrestling, Drugs, Death – A Day Late and a Dollar Short
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
Congressman Henry Waxman, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has issued a letter to John Walters, director of the President’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, summarizing the committee’s investigation of steroid use in pro wrestling.
This is the Waxman committee’s last word on the subject because, among other things, Waxman is moving to the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. A subcommittee of Energy and Commerce, chaired by Congressman Bobby Rush, had made noises about looking into wrestling, as well, but has produced nothing of substance.
Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment seem to have done it again – using a combination of rhetorical bluster and aggressive lawyering to stymie the kind of probe that could have made a real difference. Waxman asks Walters’ office to examine “widespread steroid abuse and systemic deficiencies in testing policies and practices.” Great. But the committee never got McMahon to testify in an open public session. Instead, committee counsel and staff interviewed him in December 2007 – more than a year ago – before releasing the transcript of the session along with Waxman’s letter.
Brian Cohen, senior investigator for the Democratic majority, explained: “[P]er our discussion with Jerry [McDevitt, McMahon’s lawyer] beforehand, we’ve not alerted the media. Our intention was that you were able to come in here without having a media circus.”
Perfect. We can’t have media circuses for WWE. Those are reserved for Roger Clemens.
In a pep talk to the talent last year, Vince’s daughter, Stephanie McMahon Levesque, promised that, when called to testify before Congress, he would show up in a clown wig. That would have accomplished more for the cause of reform than grilling him, to little effect, behind closed doors.
Links to Waxman’s letter to Walters and associated documents – including a 122-page transcript of the committee staff session with McMahon – are at http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2298. Further commentary from here in due course.
Irv Muchnick