Sport-Blog.com

by Thomas J. Hanson, Editor, OpenEducation.net.

Some papers called the testimony dramatic. Others called it political showmanship. Those with a touch of reality and a willingness to be edgy called it sorry.

But sadly, not one of them called the recent steroid hearing in Washington conclusive.

Adding to this truly bizarre situation is that one day after the hearing, the committee's chairman Henry A. Waxman told the world he regretted holding the hearing. The California Democrat further insisted that he went ahead with the public spectacle only because Roger Clemens and his legal team demanded it.

Those words promptly sent the Clemens' legal team into near hysteria. Expressing complete disbelief at the Waxman assertion, Clemens' team insisted that they had actually tried to head off the public spectacle only to be rebuffed by Congress.

Meanwhile, those with an independent eye to the entire process expressed disgust as the hearing also devolved into yet another example of partisan politics. While Democrats clearly indicated their disdain and disbelief of Clemens, Republicans expressed the same sentiment toward trainer Brian McNamee. The independent view was that both sides of the Congressional aisle sought to pump their personal chests as they ridiculed the witnesses.

With Clemens a close personal friend of President Bush's father, George Hebert Walker Bush, the split along party lines further revealed the partisan state of Washington politics today. That split promptly lead McNamee's attorney to suggest that nothing would ever happen to Clemens anyway as the current president will step in and pull a Scooter Libby.

We stated previously that Congress had no business being involved in this matter in the first place. The proceedings simply demonstrated this fact publicly.