The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The Clemens Hearing Report Card will assess the key players' performances in a way that has about as much to do with baseball as the hearing itself. Next up: Roger Clemens!
It's quite likely, had Roger Clemens not decided to wage mortal war with Brian McNamee after the Mitchell Report's findings were released, that today's needless, useless spectacle would never have happened. Then again, congressmen like their airtime, so perhaps they would have found a way around the whole "Why?" question pretty easily. After all, they didn't exactly answer it well today.
Instead, Clemens was the one answering questions and, after final consideration ... eesh.
It's always inherently unfair to expect a professional athlete to be eloquent and rhetorically organized; those are not qualities required to excel at baseball, and thus are skills that go undeveloped from the age of, say, 13 or so. But even on that tilted scale, Roger Clemens' presentation today was difficult to watch. One notable example: the pitcher was visibly lost during Rep. John Tierney's first line of questioning about Clemens' wife and HGH. The representative was right: Clemens' explanation for not knowing about his wife and Andy Pettitte's HGH use, despite alleged conversations to the contrary, seems pretty difficult to believe.
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The Clemens Hearing Report Card will assess the key players' performances in a way that has about as much to do with baseball as the hearing itself. Next up: Brian McNamee!
Before the hearing began, one had to figure that Brian McNamee was going to take some abuse. He is a steroids dealer, after all, and any criminal's character is inherently assailable. But if you predicted that Brian McNamee would face the sort of raging contempt he got from the committee today, you probably also predicted the Giants to win the Super Bowl. (Congratulations. You are no doubt reading this from atop a pile of money.)
Really, though: It's as if a few members of Congress were so hell-bent on protecting Roger Clemens' reputation they'd stoop to any low to destroy McNamee's. These are national politicians; you'd think they'd show a little restraint. Instead, a few (Dan Burton and Darrell Issa, to name just two) attacked McNamee ruthlessly.
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The Clemens Hearing Report Card will assess the key players' performances in a way that has about as much to do with baseball as the hearing itself. Up next: Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton!
As the Congresswoman from D.C., Eleanor Holmes Norton doesn't get many moments in the sun. She's a delegate, not a representative, and, as such, isn't allowed to cast a vote on legislation. Why a city full of American citizens isn't afforded representation is a discussion for a different blog, but she is allowed to take part in committee work.
That brought her to today's hearing where she authored one of the more memorable exchanges of the entire day. She cataloged a litany of things Brian McNamee did while in the employ of Roger Clemens that would have made most people end their relationship with him. He lied about having a Ph.D. and injected his wife with HGH, among other things. Finally, she cut to the quick.
Norton: "Why did you keep this man? He did some pretty horrendous things."
Clemens: "I'm a forgiving person."
Norton: "Mr. Clemens, I'm sure you're going to heaven."
Some say this was a softball but I read it exactly opposite. To me, it was a sarcastic takedown of a man who claimed the high road all day but when faced with a lowlife looked the other way. Maybe I'm overrating her sense of humor because she's been funny on The Colbert Report several times. But I don't think so. Eleanor Holmes Norton: A
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The Clemens Hearing Report Card will assess the key players' performances in a way that has about as much to do with baseball as the hearing itself. Up next: Andy Pettitte!
If you've been following As The Rocket Squirms for as long as I have, you doubtlessly know that Andy Pettitte wasn't on Capitol Hill for today's hearings. It's a shame he wasn't there because no one came off smelling rosier.
Rep. Henry Waxman: "Mr. Pettitte's honesty makes him a role model, on and off the field."
Rep. Elijah Cummings called him "one of the most respected players in the major leagues and one of the most honest people in baseball." Roger Clemens agreed with that statement. Cummings, who came off better than most of his colleagues on this day, came back at the end to say that Pettitte's deposition discredited Clemens. It really did. Pettitte, and his wife Laura, recounted times when Clemens said he and his wife used HGH. We know she did, which makes Rocket's denials of the former that much harder to believe. More than anything else in this interminable ordeal, Pettitte's deposition was the clearest, most concise statement entered into the public record.
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The Clemens Hearing Report Card will assess the key players' performances in a way that has about as much to do with baseball as the hearing itself did. Next up: Tom Davis!
Were it not for the strident shouting of Dan Burton, Roger Clemens would not have had a better friend on the committee today than Tom Davis. Whereas Burton probably damaged Roger's cause with his name calling and good-old-boy BS, Davis remained composed and careful. It actually took the listener a minute or two to see what Davis' larger point was, and at least one listener appreciated a little nuance in defense of Clemens.
The problem is that once that nuance wore off, Davis was no better than Burton. He shouted, called Brian McNamee names, tried to create doubt about Clemens' butt abscess by calling it a "palpable mass" -- let us never utter those words again -- and completed the trifecta with the most offensive comment of the day. In regards to medical questions asked of Clemens, Davis said: "This is a new form of lynching!" That comment alone betrays the deep confusion and sadness in Mr. Davis' core, an abyss that can only be described by the letter grade directly below. But hey, at least he didn't scream. Rep. Tom Davis: D
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The Clemens Hearing Report Card will assess the key players' performances in a way that has about as much to do with baseball as the hearing itself. Up next: Henry Waxman!
As the chairman of the prestigious House oversight committee, the name Henry Waxman comes with built-in cred. It's not easy to get appointed to these committees, you know -- that requires years of finagling favors for even one's worst political enemies, all for the chance to one day be chair, and one day fail as spectacularly as Henry Waxman did today.
It's not that Waxman's conduct was especially egregious; a few of his colleagues more than cornered that market. It's just that Waxman did so little to rein the committee members in -- so little to prove that today's hearing really was about steroids awareness -- that by the end of the fracas it was clear why Waxman called the hearing in the first place: to publicly hang Roger Clemens. Clemens probably deserves that fate, but American public doesn't.
Still, kudos to Waxman for sticking up for Brian McNamee. And, as an editor noticed this morning, for looking like Ronald Weasley's pet rat Scabbers. Redeeming qualities are redeeming qualities.
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The Clemens Hearing Report Card will assess the key players' performances in a way that has about as much to do with baseball as the hearing itself. Next up: Elijah Cummings!
Elijah Cummings had an interesting, if not particularly promising, start to the day. As the first congressman charged with asking questions, Cummings went wild with Roger Clemens, attempting to poke holes in Clemens' opening statement and recent public diatribes while constantly reminding the pitcher he was under oath. Nothing says "I don't believe a word you're saying" quite like reminding someone they're under oath.
It turned out Cummings saved his best for last. As the hearing closed, Cummings calmly laid out that he trusted Andy Pettitte more than either Clemens or Brian McNamee, and said:
"I've listened to you very carefully," Cummings said. "And I take you at your word. And you're telling me that Andy Pettitte is an honest man, and his credibility is pretty much impeccable. ... You said you were misunderstood. But all I'm saying is, it's hard to believe. It's hard to believe your story. I hate to say that. You're one of my heores. But it's hard to believe you."
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The Clemens Hearing Report Card will assess the key players' performances in a way that has about as much to do with baseball as the hearing itself. First up: Dan Burton!
The Clemens hearing had its fair share of personality launches today, but none was more overstated, simpleminded, and ridiculous than Rep. Dan Burton's. Burton, a Republican from the fine state of Indiana, not only praised Roger Clemens to the point of embarrassment -- Burton screeched "He's a ... a ... a TITAN!" -- but he attacked Brian McNamee with a zeal usually reserved for the pedophiles on "To Catch a Predator."
What was even worse about Burton's sneering attempts to brand McNamee a liar was that he largely missed the point. Brian McNamee's lied before -- as Burton asserted -- but since cutting his deal with federal investigators his story's been consistent. Lying to reporters to protect your employer is not the same as lying under oath, which Burton conveniently forgot. Combine that tiny oversight with the fact that Burton's defense did more to hurt his object of affection than help him and you've got the first, and perhaps worst, grade of the day.
Rep. Dan Burton: F
FanHouse awards you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The Clemens Hearing Report Card will assess the key players' performances in a way that has about as much to do with baseball as the hearing itself. Next up: Roger Clemens!
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The 
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The 
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The 
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The 
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The 
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The 
The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The 
