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I wanted to comment quickly on the congressional hearing today involving Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee. I have been watching the majority of it today, and I just wanted to write down a few things that I’ve observed. Whatever your feelings are on the subject are your feelings, and this post is in no way meant to try and sway anyone’s opinions.

Congressional Approach

First of all, I find it kind of funny that the republicans seem to be on Clemens’ side, and the democrats are on McNamee’s side. I don’t know what that means, but I find it funny.

One of my problems with this case is the way that the congressional panel is approaching the situation. There is a lot of nit-picking going on. The subject is about McNamee telling Sen. George Mitchell that Clemens, and other baseball players, took steroids or HGH or whatever. However, a lot of the discussion is about minor details of the case that don’t really have a lot to do with whether or not Roger Clemens used performance enhancing drugs. They’re arguing over Clemens visiting with his nanny before she was questioned by the government, and Clemens golfing so he couldn’t have been at Jose Canseco’s barbeque. Sure, these things have to do with the case as far as witnesses and whatnot are concerned, but they’re not about the core arguments. I just feel like this hearing could have been over in about an hour, but it’s been going strong for about 4-and-a-half hours because of all the nit-picking. I just wish they would discuss the central questions and things directly involved, instead of whether or not the phrase “It-is-what-it-is” can be interpreted as “I am telling the truth.”

 

My Opinion

As far as who is winning, in general, in my opinion…I’m not really sure. But , I think if you look at the two sides and how they’re being argued, I think I have to lean toward McNamee. I look at it like this…

If you look at the questions that are meant to find out if Clemens took steroids, they’re dealing mostly in facts. Most of these facts have been corroborated by a lot of other people, including Andy Pettitte and his wife, and Chuck Knoblauch. But if you look at the questions geared toward McNamee, they all seem to just attack his credibility and not the facts. That’s a great idea if it’s McNamee’s word against Clemens’, but it’s not. If you take McNamee totally out of the argument, at this point, you still have other people confirming the facts that McNamee’s side is claiming. But if you took McNamee out of the picture, it would probably be devastating to Clemens’ side, because then he would have to attack the credibility of Andy Pettitte and his wife, and Chuck Knoblauch. In the early part of the hearings, they talked about the credibility of Andy Pettitte, saying that he’s one of the most honest men in baseball and he would have no reason to lie. But for some reason, that part of the story has just sort of faded away.

Anyway, we’ll see how this plays out. If you would like to see why I think Roger Clemens is lying, head on over to my aptly titled post — 5 Reasons Why I Think Roger Clemens is Lying.

One more thing…I really think Chairman Henry Waxman looks like a Who from Dr. Seuss.

 

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