Burton the latest toe-tapping congressMAN

Rep. Dan Burton is the latest member of Congress to find himself ensnared in the exquisite trappings of a sex controversy, and this time, it's unlikely the Indiana Republican will be spared the humiliation most of his colleagues have been.

That's because Burton was caught tapping toes in a bathroom stall next to New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens yesterday, after the once-guaranteed Hall of Famer endured another grueling round of questioning before a House committee investigating the steroid scandal.

"For the uninitiated, toe tapping in a men's room stall is a universal sign for 'Hey dude, if you're in there, you wanna, uh, you know…'" Dick Cornell, chief of security for the House chamber in the nation's capital, said in a news conference yesterday. Burton was given a "harsh public reprimand," according to Cornell, and asked to refrain from participating in the baseball hearings from now on.

"It was clear his man-love for Clemens got in the way of his judgment," Cornell added.

Burton's mandal comes at a bad time for baseball: embroiled in a monumental indignity over the insidious presence of steroids and human growth hormone in the nation's former favorite pastime, with Clemens, one of its heroes, right in the middle. Brian McNamee, the pitcher's former trainer, has said he injected Clemens with HGH.

"A guy like Clemens, even if he is completely cleared, he's been tarred and feathered by a lot of these people and I think that's unfortunate," Burton told The Washington Post just minutes before he entered the restroom. It's unclear whether he'd seen Clemens walk in just before.

Burton's office did not return numerous calls from The Spotted Bass.