'Roid Wrap-up

Waxman wraps things up, and the main story is that we know that Pettite and Knoblauch have corroborated McNamee's story. He struck his gavel as Clemens tried to speak out during the close. Waxman apologized to McNamee, and rightly so - he took some really unwarranted abuse from some of the more deranged members of the committee. It becomes very clear during this kind of testimony which Congresspeople have law degrees and which do not.

Waxman appears to be biased against Clemens, but as the committee member who has spent the most time on this, it's understandable. The evidence is stacked against Clemens. Pettite and McNamee were both good friends of Clemens who in the past had stridently defended him, but in the end, under oath, they both told the truth. Knoblauch as well. McNamee's story holds up to scrutiny; Clemens' is highly implausible (and he doesn't have much of a response, really, aside from talking about how awesome he is and attacking McNamee's character).

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McNamee's behavior in response to a lot of the questioning was surprisingly composed. If anyone had come at me the way Burton had, I would have angrily asked him whether he was really seriously putting his committee and NY tabloid papers on the same level. But he calmly answered Yes or No to most of the questions from his assailants. Only when Shays (R-CT, again, a Republican) characterized him as a drug dealer towards the end did McNamee say anything more in response to an attack, and that was only to say "In your opinion." McNamee, it must be said, was literally a "drug dealer", but to characterize him as a common crack hood is misleading, as HGH and steroids are not exactly drugs of recreational abuse, and his illegal work was at the behest of two or three pretty rich and famous people. Waxman pointed out the latter fact (pointing at Clemens) after Shays ceased his attack.

Cummings was just being interviewed on TV upon conclusion of the session. He said that he thought these proceedings cleared up a lot for him. I think they did for the public as well. Clemens' ship is sinking. His attempt to silence the nanny before she spoke to the committee is really damaging. You just can't make this stuff up, can you? What a bizarre circus.

It's odd, as a sports fan working in Washington, DC, to sit here and see these two worlds collide. As Jayson Stark pointed out, it's sad, because most of us enjoy sports largely because they're an escape from real life. But in sports, as in politics, justice is paramount. Nothing today was definitive, but the session was clarifying. We might not be sure of Clemens' guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but I think we're getting to the point where a preponderance of the evidence weighs against Clemens. Someone committed perjury here today. I think the Rocket's future destination may well be federal prison.

Partisanship and Baseball

Virginia Foxx opens her mouth again and attacks the Mitchell Committee representative for saying that they had evidence against Clemens when in her estimation they only had allegations. Ms. Foxx, you might be surprised to know that statements people make can be entered as evidence. Foxx tries to continue but Waxman cuts her off, as she's gone well over her time.

It has to be said: so far the Republicans appear to be big Clemens fans who will defend him in the face of all evidence to the contrary. The conduct of Foxx and Burton today has been shameful, and Issa (R-CA) has been almost as bad. Is Clemens a major Republican party donor?

The proceedings return to Rep. Cummings, who sensibly brings back up the point that the most believable people here are Pettite and Knoblauch, and that for Clemens' account to be true, it would require a lot of other people to be lying and for his implausible story to be true. Clemens repeats that he can't believe Pettite used HGH, and that Pettite must be mistaken about Clemens. Pettite's wife has also submitted an affidavit that Pettite and Clemens talked about his steroid use. "It is very hard to believe you," says Cummings.

Where do we FIND these people?

Virginia Foxx (R-NC) just displayed four photos of Clemens from across the years and declared that Clemens doesn't look any bigger in the later ones (though he clearly does, even if it's just his gut) and then invited Clemens to talk about his training regimen. Of course, rather than talking about his exercise, he's talking about his accomplishments in baseball. Waxman, thankfully, shut him up. How can such a brainless person as Foxx hold elected office?

DC has a voice!

Eleanor Norton Holmes, DC's (nonvoting) Representative, has asked the question we all were wondering: if McNamee was such a bad guy, why did Clemens continue to have close relations with him until after the Mitchell Report was released? Clemens' response: "I'm a forgiving guy."

It's hard to believe a word of what Clemens is saying at this point.

The Wax Man Speaketh

The committee chair is now questioning Clemens.



A bombshell here regarding the party at Canseco's, which has been used as an attempt to show that McNamee is unreliable. McNamee spoke (in detail, again) about Clemens' nanny, who was at the party. The committee asked Clemens last Friday for the nanny's name. Clemens - what incredible gall - is telling the committee that he "did them a favor" by finding the nanny's contact info and fulfilling their request. Amazing. Then, Camp Clemens contacted the nanny before she spoke to the committee! Amazing! He invited her TO HIS HOME and talked to her about the party, and this was before he turned over her contact info to the committee. Talk about tampering. Turns out that after the Committee actually spoke to the nanny, she revealed that he WAS INDEED at the party. There goes the attempt to discredit McNamee (and Clemens' attempt to silence the nanny, apparently). It seems to me that the true story is that Clemens went golfing the morning of the barbecue and then showed up later.

Clemens is pathetic. He is speaking right now continuing to say that he is doing the committee a favor. His lawyers are standing up behind him and speaking out of turn (they are not allowed to speak). This will be the enduring image of the hearing, and it looks really bad for Clemens.

Congressman Dan Burton is not very smart.

Well, here we have the first Congressman who is clearly an unabashed Clemens fan. The Republican from Indiana called Clemens a "titan" of baseball and brought up a number of statements that McNamee made to various newspapers about not being involved in steroids, and then yelled at McNamee for "lying to this committee". He told McNamee to his face that he didn't believe a word he said and called him a liar. Uh, Congressman. He's saying one thing under oath to a Congressional committee and another to the NY Post. Obviously he lied to the papers; who wouldn't? Why would he incriminate himself in talking to the freaking Post? And why would be perjure himself now? I wish McNamee had pointed this out to Burton.



How do we elect people like this to Congress?

By the way, McNamee is too confidently providing details of his accounts upon questioning for him to be lying. The man is obviously not very smart, so there's no way that he could be making this up off the cuff.

Turns out that Burton is a scumbag, according to Salon. Unbelievable that he railed on the committee for slandering Clemens and yet he led an all out attack on Clinton, all while having serious ethical scandals in his own recent past. Pathetic, hypocritical human being - and I'm being generous with the "human being" part. I cannot believe he's still in office. Indiana, wake up.

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...