Mr. Clemens goes to Washington. And Heaven.

Roger Clemens appeared before congress today and basically 1) told the truth about never taking steroids or 2) has ordered work to begin on his bust for the Imbecile Hall of Fame beside George W. Bush, Gallagher and Jeff Gilooly.

This, from the transcript is just bizarre:
Update 12:53 p.m. - The committee has taken a break. Clemens was questioned by Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., about why he continued to employ McNamee after incidents of mistrust. She concluded by telling Clemens she was sure he was "going to heaven."

One thing I found interesting after reading the ap report on the hearings is this passage:
Eventually, the committee split largely along party lines, with the Democrats reserving their most pointed queries for Clemens, and the Republicans giving McNamee a rougher time.

Other than the odd notion that this didn't surprise me, why would this be? Is it coincidence? Are Democrats intrinsically more apt to believe the whistleblower/minion and grill the bully? Are Rebublicans intrinsically more apt to hero worship to a seemingly absurd point and stomp on the meek dissmbling trainer, the enabler, the bad kid from the broken home down the street who got Roger mixed up with drugs and it's our job to get him back on the straight and narrow?

One thing is for sure, Roger Clemens took steroids. He did it before baseball had a test for it. He did it to morph from Hall of Famer to Legend. And he did it when a whole lot of other, younger people were passing it around the back corners of locker rooms like joints or lines at a party--only the edgy kids were doing it, but everybody knew it was going on and that was cool.

That doesn't condone it. There were plenty of good players not doing it. I'm getting tired of hearing analysts say they're over steroids or doesn't congress have better things to do. Baseball, internally, has nothing to lose by doing, and denying knowledge of, steroids, in every facet of its makeup. I get the inkling the John Rocker is telling the truth when he claims Bud Selig and the front office looked the other way. Why wouldn't they. Baseball was getting its sea legs again after the strike season, and in 1998 fans,owners and players cheered the long ball and looked the other way (sportwriters literally looked the other way to the point that McGwire kept a bottle of andro in plain sight in his locker and not many murmured when he said it was on the up-and-up). They may have wanted to put that together with his middle age acne problem, but why rehash that.