The Clemens hearing is over now, and the assorted parties have retreated. The Clemens Hearing Report Card will assess the key players' performances in a way that has about as much to do with baseball as the hearing itself. Up next: Henry Waxman!As the chairman of the prestigious House oversight committee, the name Henry Waxman comes with built-in cred. It's not easy to get appointed to these committees, you know -- that requires years of finagling favors for even one's worst political enemies, all for the chance to one day be chair, and one day fail as spectacularly as Henry Waxman did today.
It's not that Waxman's conduct was especially egregious; a few of his colleagues more than cornered that market. It's just that Waxman did so little to rein the committee members in -- so little to prove that today's hearing really was about steroids awareness -- that by the end of the fracas it was clear why Waxman called the hearing in the first place: to publicly hang Roger Clemens. Clemens probably deserves that fate, but American public doesn't.
Still, kudos to Waxman for sticking up for Brian McNamee. And, as an editor noticed this morning, for looking like Ronald Weasley's pet rat Scabbers. Redeeming qualities are redeeming qualities.
Henry Waxman: D+
More Clemens Coverage:
Roger Clemens Hearing Live Blog Part 1 | Part 2
The More Talk About Andy Pettitte, the Worse It Gets for Roger Clemens
Clemens, McNamee Each Have Their Fans in Congressional Hearings
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