Photo (left to right) of Brian McNamee, Charles Scheeler, Roger Clemens by AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
After a morning of denials and denouncements at a hearing in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform one thing is clear, Brian McNamee and Roger Clemens deserve each other. As Chairman, Henry Waxman, made clear at the start of the proceedings this morning one of them is lying and based on the testimony so far it seems like Clemens is.
Start with the depositions of Chuck Knoblauch and Andy Pettitte who both verified Brian McNamee’s testimony, with Pettite admitting to further HGH use than he previously apologized for. Clemens expressed shock that Pettitte used HGH and said that Andy must have “misunderstood” him because Pettitte claimed in his testimony that he had discussed HGH with Clemens. Clemens was also caught in a lie when it was pointed out that he told the Mitchell Report that he had never spoke to McNamee about HGH use but then subsequently admitting he had when he discussed his wife’s use of it.
Interestingly, the committee seemed to break down across party lines in terms of which side they believed. For the most part, the Democrats seemed to believe McNamee, while the Republicans seemed to believe Clemens. Could this be because Texas is a red state?
The most interesting exchange took place between Chairman Waxman and Clemens when they discussed how Congress had asked for contact information for a nanny who supposedly attended a party at Jose Canseco’s house in 1998. Not only did Clemens take some time to provide Congress with that information, he also invited the nanny to his house this past Sunday. When Congressman Waxman pointed out how this appeared to be tampering with a witness, both of Clemens’ lawyers jumped up and tried to intervene while Clemens merely said that he thought, “I was doing y’all a favor by finding her”.
A lot of the morning was consumed by an investigation into a palpable mass on Clemens’ buttocks. Hopefully, the afternoon session will move on from that.
