Beanball on Capitol Hill

It began as a juiced-up soap opera about steroids in baseball, but the congressional inquiry into whether legendary pitcher Roger Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs has morphed into a bizarre partisan slugfest between politicians. Prior to last week's hearing with Clemens and Brian McNamee, his chief accuser and former trainer, both Democrats and Republicans said they simply wanted to examine Clemens's claim that he had been smeared by Major League Baseball's steroid investigation. But the televised inquisition split along party lines. Democrats, led by House Oversight Committee chair Rep. Henry Waxman, hammered Clemens over his shaky denials; most Republicans fumed about McNamee's history of lying.

Partisan tensions only escalated after the hearing. According to McNamee's camp, GOP committee members went easy on Clemens because he's a well-connected Republican. The pitcher "travels in the same circles as the Bushes," McNamee lawyer Richard Emery told NEWSWEEK. "It's more than logical. It's demonstrated." (Emery also told the Associated Press that the White House would pardon Clemens if necessary.) In response, Clemens's lawyer Rusty Hardin said he had "no idea" whether his client is a Republican. Hardin confirmed that Clemens is a longtime pal of former president George H.W. Bush and that the two men spoke the day after MLB's steroid report was released. Clemens and his lawyers also made a round of very public visits to members of Waxman's committee prior to the hearing. But apart from that, Hardin said, Clemens had no contact with other Republicans or Bush family members, including the current president. Jean Becker, the elder Bush's chief of staff, said that the former president "has done no lobbying of any kind to anyone on the Hill or the White House, nor will he." Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the current president, said that Emery's claims are "ludicrous." A check of federal campaign-finance records showed that Clemens has made no contributions to any political candidate or party.

Hardin conceded that Clemens's credibility took a hit during the hearing. His client, he said, participated despite the knowledge that his testimony could result in a perjury investigation by the Justice Department. (A Justice Department spokesman had no comment.) A committee official, who asked for anonymity when discussing internal deliberations, said the committee won't decide for at least a week whether to call for a criminal investigation. If it does, Republicans might balk—but two committee sources said that Waxman could go ahead with a criminal referral anyway.

© 2008