The Misrememberment Plan

Early on in this morning's hearing, Roger Clemens is going down in flames.

There's just no way around it.

I've got this morning's Congressional hearing streaming in one ear, and I'm almost embarrassed for Clemens. The opening statements by Clemens was pretty much what you'd expect: Roger on his high horse, talking about how great he is and how he never used steroids.

McNamee did not budge in his opening statement. He spoke honestly and confidently about Clemens' use of HGH and steroids. He pointed out that he had been a NY city police officer and that he didn't trust Clemens, which is why he kept those syringes and other evidence to back up his word.

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Clemens was unable to defend himself against the opening salvo from Rep. Elijah Cummings. Pettite has told the committee a number of times, under oath, written and in person, that Clemens has used steroids and HGH. As Rep. Cummings questioned Clemens about each of the inconsistencies between Clemens' and Pettite's statements, Clemens continually responded "I think he misremembers." Rep. Cummings pointed out that Pettite was his good friend, and would not say something repeatedly unless he was sure beyond any doubt about it. Clemens repeated "I think he misremembers." Rep. Cummings pointed out that some of Clemens' claims were impossible because of timeline issues between his account and Pettite's. Clemens repeated "I think he misremembers." This does not sound convincing.

McNamee has taken a couple of shots too, though. He testified about a barbecue at Jose Canseco's house where he and Clemens spoke about steroids. It seems as though Clemens was not at that party, according to Canseco, his wife, and Clemens' receipt from a golf course that day. Also, McNamee has in the past not been entirely truthful with federal investigators regarding a date rape incident in Florida (which I admittedly know nothing about) and also regarding the extent to which he initially said Clemens, Pettite, and Knoblauch used steroids and/or HGH.

But overall, this looks worse for Clemens. Clemens stated that Pettite misheard what he said about HGH in one of the disputed conversations. He said that he was actually talking about a TV commercial where elderly people said they had used HGH and it had improved their quality of life. He said that Pettite must have thought he was talking about himself. Uh, yeah, right.

The current Congressman (Davis?) is continuing to throw doubt into Clemens' credibility. Clemens has stated in separate accounts that he has never done any research into HGH, but that his wife used HGH and that she had some side effects from the drug. So he wants us to believe that in the aftermath of that that he never tried to learn anything about the drug. Right.

More to come...