Tym Glaser

IT WAS like something out of one of those dark Franz Kafka novels. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, the country which waves the flag highest for concept of democracy, one of America's greatest sport figures and his accuser went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday and were flayed by the US's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

What was ostensibly supposed to be a hearing into the validation of the Mitchell Report into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball turned into a Stalinesque trial where the committee tried to glean who was lying to their faces - legendary baseball pitcher Roger Clemens, who has denied using steroids or human growth hormone (HGH), or his former trainer Brian McNamee, who says he injected Clemens with both substances a number of times.

It was theatre of the bizarre as the committee members often harangued their reluctant guests in something akin to a trial - except the co-accused had nothing to back them up except their words.

Committee split

Even more weird - or scary, the committee basically split along party lines with the Republicans fawning over Clemens, a well-known friend of the Bush family, and viciously attacking McNamee while the Democrats went after the seven-time Cy Young Award winner and possibly the greatest hurler of all time.

It was brutal, nasty and simply compelling to watch as two men who swore to tell the truth told completely contradictory stories and the people in the high chairs attacked them with impunity.

At the end of the day, there was no resolution and either Clemens or McNamee could now face perjury charges and end up in court - where at least they would get a fair trial.

Some of the committee members openly wondered what they were doing bothering with the issue of one man's possible steroid use when there were plenty of "oversights" and "reforms" on the national agenda but others adopted the position of grand inquisitor with rare glee.

Disgusting

"This is really disgusting," Indiana Republican Dan Burton told McNamee. "You're here to tell the truth, you are here under oath and yet what we have here is lie after lie after lie after lie. I don't know what to believe but I know one thing not to believe and that is you."

Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings told Clemens: "I am reminding you that you are under oath ... Mr Clemens, do you think (former teammate) Mr Pettitte was lying when he told Congress you used performance-enhancing drugs?"

When Clemens responded that his New York Yankees and Houston Astros battery mate Pettitte had "misremembered", Cummings continued: "It's hard to believe you, sir. You are one of my heroes but it's hard to believe you."

After nearly five hours of seat squirming, Clemens and McNamee departed the hearing room, their reputations battered beyond recognition and different from the men that had first entered the unnecessary sideshow.

As electric-haired Don King loves to say: "Only in America."

Later ...

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