Roger Clemens' hearing achieved nothing

Recently, the baseball and political world collided when a congressional hearing was held that featured legendary pitcher Roger Clemens and his former trainer Brian McNamee.

McNamee, of course, had named Clemens in the Mitchell Report as someone he injected with steroids and human growth hormone (HGH). The Mitchell Report was undertaken by Major League Baseball as one last attempt to understand the impact steroids have had on the sport during the last decade or so.

The testimony of Clemens and McNamee was fascinating to watch. Clemens emphatically denied ever taking any illegal drugs during his career, while McNamee continued to maintain that he had.

Obviously, one of them was lying in a big way, but both spoke with such conviction that it was difficult to get a feel one way or the other as to who was being truthful.

However, one question kept dancing in my mind while I was watching this and it was: Why was Congress investigating this?

Congressional hearings had already been held a couple of years ago regarding the impact of steroids on the sport. At those hearings, Mark McGwire famously refused to answer questions on the subject. Also, slugger Rafael Palmeiro wagged his finger at the committee and denied ever taking steroids.

Of course, Palmeiro flunked a drug test only a few months after those hearings and has apparently fallen off the face of the earth since then. He left the sport in disgrace.

Nothing new was gained from the Clemens' hearing other than hearing both sides air their dirty laundry in public.

However, as we all know, the one thing that politicians seem to love more than anything is free publicity. With this hearing, they knew they were guaranteed to get plenty of that.

And they were right. The major cable news networks carried significant chunks of the hearing. ESPN's cameras offered coverage both on television and the internet. C-SPAN replayed the hearing that evening for those who didn't have the chance to watch it during the day.

Our elected officials presided over a circus and got maximum exposure for doing so. They did not care about the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars that got flushed down the toilet so that this extravaganza could take place.

To many of our elected officials, taxpayer money is just like toilet paper. It is an easily replaceable resource, and when reserves get low, they simply go out and get more.

They demonstrate this attitude every day, but rarely do we get to see an example as blatant as the Clemens' hearing. Another circus like this is probably just around the corner.

As for Clemens and McNamee, I thought they both came off looking bad. Clemens repeatedly refused taking steroids and HGH despite some pretty compelling testimony that he did.

His good friend and fellow pitcher Andy Pettitte told congressional investigators that Clemens told him several years ago that he had taken HGH.

Additionally, Clemens' wife Debbie admitted that McNamee had injected her with HGH. If his own wife was supplied with HGH by McNamee, is it really that big of a stretch to suspect that Clemens also had been injected with it?

Also, two other players fingered by McNamee in the Mitchell Report have admitted what he said about them was true. If McNamee told the truth about those two players, why would he lie about Clemens?

As for McNamee, he didn't exactly come off smelling like a rose during his testimony. Congressional questioners got him to admit that he had repeatedly lied to the media and federal investigators during the time he had been investigated.

Obviously, that damages his credibility and should cause us all to think twice about anything he has to say. Then again, just because he lied in the past does not mean he is not telling the truth now.

As written earlier, one of these two is obviously lying. The passing of time has a tendency to reveal who is telling the truth and who is not.

Let's hope this happens in this case. Even though this event was a circus, one of these two is guilty of lying under oath to Congress.

This is a serious offense, and the guilty party should be prosecuted.

If this doesn't happen, then the crime of perjury should be removed from the law books.