Back to the whole Canseco barbecue.

Chairman Waxman said that after several attempts, the committee this week finally spoke with Clemens' nanny, who McNamee said was at the party.

According to Waxman:

- The nanny, who was not named, said she was at the barbecue, and that both Clemens and his wife were both there.

- The committee had been trying to contact the nanny for several days, asking Clemens and his attorneys to provide her contact information.

Before contacting the committee, Clemens and his lawyers got in touch with the nanny and interviewed her about what she knew. Prior to that, Clemens had not spoken to the nanny in seven years. Waxman said this had at least "the appearance of impropriety."

Clemens attorney Rusty Hardin defended his action.

"It was my idea to investigate what a witness knows," Hardin said, standing up behind Clemens.

Waxman politely asked Hardin to sit, then turned his questions back to Clemens.

"Mr. Clemens, do you think it was appropriate to contact the nanny before providing her contact information to the committee?"

"I did try to contact her. I was doing you all a favor as far as I was concerned."

"And you felt you should talk to her first. ... The right way to handle this would be to give the committee information immediately, not interview her beforehand. You chose the worst approach. You called her to your home. You asked her specifically about the party at Mr. Canseco's house, and then you called the committee."

Another one of Clemens' attorneys then stood up, angry.

"With all due respect, this is nothing but innuendo," he said.

McNamee apparently told the committee in interviews that he believes team owners were interested in suppressing information about steroid use. Rep. Mark Souder, Indiana Republican, said he might propose further hearings to address the owners culpability in the steroids problem.

"I think that the staff needs to look at this. ... It gets at the core question about whether we can trust baseball. If it's true that the owners wanted to cover up. ... That's a very serious allegation."

Souder also blasted players for refusing to cooperate with investigators.

"This wall of silence in baseball has been disgusting," Souder said.

Rep. William Lacy Clay, Missouri Democrat, asked Clemens about whether he had a responsibility to children who might look up to him. Clemens responded with a lengthy, often personal account of his upbringing and his family.

"I didn't have a car in high school. I ran home. My mother didn't have the means to send me to college, so it came to the game of baseball. ... You can tell your boys I did it the right way."

Clemens said his sister-in-law was murdered because of drugs, and that his brother was once removed from school because of an incident involving marijuana.

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton asked Clemens why he kept McNamee as a trainer, even after he lied about having a PHD.

"I'm a forgiving person," Clemens said. "I had no reason to believe he was not a doctor."

"All I can say is, 'Mr. Clemens, you're going to heaven.'‌"