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Roger Clemens Hearing Live Blog Part 2


Welcome to Part 2 of the FanHouse live blog of the Roger Clemens hearing. Josh Alper took you through the early portion and I'm here to take you through the remainder of it.

The most striking thing to me from watching the first half was the extent to which Republicans seemed more inclined to believe Clemens while Democrats seemed more inclined to believe Brian McNamee. I also thought Charlie Scheeler, who's in the middle of the above picture, was shockingly ill-prepared to answer a basic question about whether he stood by the information in the Mitchell Report about the infamous party at Jose Canseco's house.

Full live blog after the jump.


1: 20 p.m. Congressman Tom Davis gets things started by pointing out all the evidence that Clemens did not attend Jose Canseco's party. He asks Clemens about the possibility that his nanny at the time took the kids to Canseco's party without Clemens' knowledge. Clemens says, basically, that he doesn't know, although it's a long, somewhat confusing answer in which he says, "Could I have gone by the house later that afternoon? ... Sure, I could have. ... I know one thing I wasn't there huddled up with somebody trying to do a drug deal."

McNamee is asked about obtaining a doctorate from a university in Toronto and says he did correspondence work to get a Ph.D. in nutritional counseling. But he then acknowledges that his Ph.D. actually comes from a diploma mill. And, of course, he listed himself as "Dr. Brian McNamee" even though his doctorate comes from a diploma mill.

1:27 p.m. Congressman Danny Davis asks a question to Scheeler, and both Davis and Scheeler seem to be suggesting that Clemens improperly contacted McNamee in an effort to influence McNamee's testimony.

Davis then tells Clemens that McNamee's private conversations basically confirm what he said to the Mitchell investigation. When Davis asks Clemens why his own private investigators asked McNamee if he had corroborating evidence, Clemens said, "I have no idea," but he did reiterate, "This man has never given me HGH or growth hormone or steroids of any kind," in case anyone didn't hear him the first time.

Davis does some damage by pointing out that Clemens was selective about the portions of tape-recorded conversations he made public.

1:34 p.m. Rep. John Duncan says, "I have heard some holier-than-thou types on television say Congress should have more important things to work on ... but we're working on those more important things, too." Duncan, a former criminal court judge, says he thinks the case against Clemens is weak, and that McNamee's syringes are useless as evidence. I think Duncan's characterization of the case as "weak" is probably the best thing Clemens has heard today.

Clemens tells us he's a great guy because he pitched for Team USA, and because he would do anything for the game of baseball. He also suggests that the MLB commissioner should have given him a chance to refute the Mitchell Report in advance: "Bud Selig could have found me. If he knew that what this man was going to destroy my name, he could have found me."

Duncan is probably the most pro-Clemens congressman who has spoken so far.

1:40 p.m. Clemens acknowledges that he knew before the Mitchell Report came out that his name would be in it.

1:41 p.m. We're reminded that it's all about the children, as Rep. Bruce Braley says that studies show that many young people used steroids. Braley says his 16-year-old son is home sick from school and is watching on ESPN.

Braley says to Clemens, "I'm going to tell you very candidly that I am concerned about your testimony."

Braley asks Clemens if he's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's or senile dementia, an odd question, and whenhe asks Clemens if he's a vegan, Clemens says, "I don't know what that is." Braley says B-12 is only to be used by a select few types of patients, and that Clemens is clearly not a person who qualifies.

Clemens says of McNamee, "I had no reasons not to trust him," in part because of that impressive diploma-mill Ph. D.

Braley asks, "Why would you trust your body to somebody who has no professional training to take care of you?" Clemens says, "I'm a trusting guy."

1:46 p.m. Rep. Darrell Issa says that if McNamee has a Ph. D., then "Ph. D. must stand for Pile it Higher and Deeper."

Issa says that in the 1980s, there was a rampant problem with cocaine in Major League Baseball. Issa also says he's glad this is the last hearing on baseball that the committee will have.

Issa asks Clemens if he thinks the Mitchell Report is accurate aside from the stuff about him, and Clemens says, "I have not read the entire Mitchell Report," but "I do believe baseball is going in the right direction" on PEDs. Clemens then talks about the possibility that the attention-deficit disorder drug Ritalin has been abused by baseball players.

Scheeler says he stands by the entire Mitchell Report, a simple, straightforward answer that he failed to give this morning.

McNamee says he believes the Mitchell Report, too.

It is pretty ridiculous that Clemens hasn't bothered to read the entire Mitchell Report, but not totally surprising.

Issa finishes his time by looking at McNamee and saying, "Shame on you." Burn.

1:52 p.m. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland says, "if we called everybody in sports that's ever been accused of using steroids before this committee, then we would have to shut this place down."

Westmoreland calls what his committee is doing a "show trial." Wow.

Westmoreland asks why McNamee talks about his son's medical condition on a conversation he knew was being taped. He also asks why McNamee didn't just come out and say, "Roger, I've told the truth" during that conversation.

McNamee has a bizarre answer, saying he wanted Clemens to call his son, I guess because he thought hearing from a baseball player would cheer his son up.

McNamee claims that by saying the words, "it is what it is," what he was really saying was, "Roger, you know that I told the truth to the Mitchell Commission and you've lied about using steroids." I had no idea that "it is what it is" had such a specific meaning.

Westmoreland says, "I guess that depends on what 'is' means."

McNamee says no one has pressured him to say Clemens used steroids or HGH.

1:58 p.m. Rep. John Tierney asks Scheeler what he thinks of the allegations in Clemens' defamation lawsuit against McNamee.

Scheeler says "that account is absolutely incorrect," suggesting that Clemens is mischaracterizing the way the Mitchell Commission interrogated McNamee. "All Senator Mitchell wanted was the truth, and the complete truth."

Tierney says that both Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch basically corroborated McNamee's side of things.

2:03 p.m. Rep. Souder asks for more information about the phrase "it is what it is," saying that he's not a New Yorker but that he's been told that New Yorkers consider the phrase "it is what it is" to mean the same thing as "I told the truth."

2:04 p.m. Rep. Virginia Foxx says "there are billions of dollars being wasted every minute by the federal government and what this committee ought to be doing is government oversight, and we're not doing that. I'm not a fan of holding these hearings on issues we have no business dealing with. I really wish we'd get back to what our job is, which is government oversight and accountability."

McNamee says he has no deals in the works with book publishers and that he has no plans to make money off his allegations.

Clemens reads a statement from his wife, saying that she read an article about the benefits of growth hormone. She says that McNamee told her it wasn't illegal and was used for youthfulness. Debbie Clemens says that she got one shot of HGH from McNamee. Roger says he never would have asked McNamee to inject his wife with HGH.

Foxx shows four photos of Roger Clemens during his playing days, which appear to be from 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2005, and she says, "Mr. Clemens, I'm not an expert, but you appear to me to be about the same size in these four photos."

Clemens says, "My body didn't change. I didn't start throwing harder. The fact of the matter is, I started locating better."

Clemens points out the infamous Dan Duquette "twilight of his career" comment that was used to justify letting Clemens leave Boston. "If I was in the twilight of my career I doubt the Toronto Blue Jays ownership would have made me the highest-paid pitcher in the game of baseball the following year." He points out that he was great in his first year in Toronto and that he hadn't even met McNamee at that point.

Rep. Waxman points out that Clemens isn't answering the question before him and cuts him off, although I have no idea what Foxx's question was; she basically just trotted out four photos of Clemens and let Clemens ramble on.

2:11 p.m. Rep. Christopher Murphy asks Scheeler why he wasn't more aggressive about trying to get Clemens to answer questions that could be used in the Mitchell Report. Scheeler says he and the rest of the Mitchell commission tried to get in touch with Clemens and that he refused to talk to them.

Clemens keeps repeating that he thinks MLB and the union are "going in the right direction" toward combating the use of PEDs, but he doesn't seem to realize that this hearing is about what he did in the past, not what MLB is doing going forward.

2:18 p.m. Rep. Foxx makes a long, detailed question to Scheeler, and Rep. Waxman then tells her that the question is out of order. And then Scheeler proceeds to answer anyway. Scheeler tries to detail the way the Mitchell commission approached Clemens, and Waxman bangs his gavel and tells both Scheeler and Foxx to shut up, in so many words.

2:20 p.m. Rep. Elijah Cummings says to Clemens, "The person I believe most is Mr. Pettitte," and he clearly intends that to mean that he thinks Clemens is lying.

Clemens says "McNamee never told me about Andy Pettitte using HGH."

Ultimately, Clemens looks good when he's contrasting himself with Pettitte and bad when he's contrasting himself with McNamee. Pettitte seems much more reliable than McNamee, and if Pettitte is saying that Clemens used HGH, then it's going to be very hard for Clemens to refute that.

Cummings: "I listen to you very carefully and I take you at your word, and your word is that Andy Pettitte is an honest man, and his integrity is impeccable.... It's hard to believe you sir. I hate to say that. You're one of my heroes. But it's hard to believe you."

2:26 p.m. Rep. Shays talks about how weak the original MLB steroid policy was. Shays says of Clemens, "He's the one who brings all these cameras." Shays says, "For you Mr. McNamee, I believe some of what you say, but it depends when. I view you as a police officer who was a drug dealer."

McNamee says, "As far as your comments about being a drug dealer, I only did what players asked." When Shays calls him a drug dealer, McNamee says, "That's your opinion." So then Shays asks him, "You were dealing in drugs, weren't you?" McNamee said, "Dealing in them, yes."

OK, so McNamee dealt illegal drugs, but he wasn't a drug dealer. Good to know.

Shays says there were 89 players named in the Mitchell Report and that he wonders why the other 88 aren't at the hearing.

Clemens says of McNamee, "he deceived me."

2:31 p.m. Rep. Diane Watson lobs a question to Clemens and Clemens hits it out of the park with all the cliches in the book about how he's a good role model who teaches kids the value of hard work, achieving goals, being good students, etc. "I want the kids out there listening to understand that there are no shortcuts. Steroids are bad for your body. ... I want the children to know that."

Watson asks McNamee about the Mitchell Report, and he answers, "I think it was a document that needed to be done."

Watson asks, "What would you like to say to the public? This is all on C-Span." Um, Rep. Watson? It's on a lot more than just C-Span.

And with Rep. Watson, our questions are finished. Now it's time for Rep. Davis' closing statement, and he points out (correctly in my view) that there are perhaps some flaws with the information-gathering in the Mitchell Report but that the recommendations in the Report are solid.

Chairman Waxman says there's nothing that separates Democrats from Republicans on this issue, but I don't agree with that; it seems pretty clear to me that the Democrats were much harder on Clemens than the Republicans were.

Waxman talks about the importance of Pettitte's testimony and Clemens interrupts, prompting Wasman to pound his gavel.

Waxman apologizes to McNamee for the way he was attacked by some members of Congress during the course of the hearing, signaling yet again that there is a partisan divide -- clearly, it was the Republicans who did almost all of the attacking of McNamee, and Waxman, a Democrat, is saying they were out of bounds.

"That concludes our hearing of the day, and we stand adjourned."

The hearing, in all, took four hours, 41 minutes, according to ESPN.

Thanks for joining our FanHouse live blog, and keep checking MLB FanHouse for much, much more on this issue.

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