At Tuesday night’s political debate in Cleveland, Ohio, Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton referred to a Saturday Night Live skit as she accused the media of providing “cushions” for her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, instead of offering him tough, fair and balanced questions.

Up until today, Brian McNamee could have accused House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform members of the same charge. Exactly two weeks ago, McNamee received a verbal beat-down from Republican members of the committee who openly lambasted him for being a “liar” and a “drug dealer” in very pointed, personal tones. Meanwhile, they lofted softballs at their new-found pal and “great American icon,” essentially putting him up in a Watergate Hotel room with extra pillows and as many of those little chocolate mints as he wanted.

Now, after a number of Clemens’ stories revealed gaping holes, the committee officially launched a federal investigation to see if the former Yankees pitcher is guilty of perjury or obstruction of justice. Yes, the same charge Barry Lamar Bonds is currently charged with, after the feds went after him for two-and-a-half years.

Bonds never received the “extra pillow” treatment during the beginning of his accusations stages, and the reasoning is explained simply as his lack of likability. People — especially Republican senators — feel a special bond with Clemens, and there were willing to cling to his every word until he deceived them… and even then, maybe, just maybe it was a mistake. Maybe he just… “misremembered.”

But maybe Clemens has breached an element of change similar to Sen. Obama; maybe his “extra pillow” treatment is warranted, given his ability to mobilize the masses and get people talking about baseball again despite its current state of being — infiltrated with drugs, accusers and pesky congresspersons with too much free time on their hands.

Clemens, with the help of The Mitchell Report and his mention in it, managed to conjure up unity and change in two different areas: fans and now, congresspersons.

The Fans

In a Gallup poll survey of 462 baseball fans between February 21-24 (after the congressional theatrics), 57% believe he lied to congress about his use of steroids. Even with that majority of assumed guilt from the court of public opinion, 62% still believe Clemens deserves to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The same question was asked about Bonds and he received 46% support. It should be noted that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa both recorded numbers similar to Clemens’ 62% HOF support. So what does this prove? Likability comes into play when it comes to fans’ HOF support; but as of last year, McGwire has not breached “the block” of a HOF induction. It is very apparent baseball fans give players much more credit than HOF voters.

Weeks before George Mitchell shook up Clemens’ life, in a different poll, 60% of those surveyed said that players named in The Mitchell Report should be punished; 37% said there should not be punishments.

In the latest poll, opinions have flip-flopped; now, 55% believe baseball should not punish current MLB players named in The Mitchell Report.

What changed once the report was released? The report managed to drag the once-pure Clemens name through the mud, after many years of the former HOF “shoo-in” being labeled simply as competitive but likable. Bonds was treated like a villain during his chase for Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record; even the commissioner played a back-and-forth game about whether he wanted to be at the historic moment or not. The number of harsh judges stood at 60% after Bonds was seen as the most popular, best statistical player to get hit with the most scrutiny about steroid used; now that Clemens elevated his level of presumed guilt (remember that 57% of those thinking he lied to congress) as Bonds, many of the judges back down and managed to unite — or at least rethink individually or collectively, but all at once — and become more lenient all of a sudden.

Such amazement, no?

The Congressional Members

When we last left the House Oversight Committee partisan bias show two weeks ago, Democrats tended to pepper Clemens with more in-depth question, while Republican members took it easy on the man they labeled a “great American icon.” Here we are a few weeks later and now — just like after The Mitchell Report release, with Clemens’ name the biggest of the allegedly caught fish — Clemens has managed to unite a divide.

The committee’s chairman, Henry Waxman (Democrat), and the committee’s ranking Republican, Tom Davis, (a Republican), collaborated to send a letter over to the attorney general Michael Mukasey in order to spark a Department of Justice investigation into whether or not Clemens lied to them under oath, and may be guilty of perjury or obstruction of justice.

An excerpt:

Congress cannot perform its oversight function if witnesses who appear before its committees do not provide truthful testimony. Perjury and false statements before Congress are crimes that undermine the integrity of congressional inquiries. For these reasons, we take evidence that a witness may have intentionally misled the Committee extremely seriously.

We are not in a position to reach a definitive judgment as to whether Mr. Clemens lied to the Committee. Our only conclusion is that significant questions have been raised about Mr. Clemens’s truthfulness and that further investigation by the Department of Justice is warranted. We ask that you initiate such an investigation. The record of the Committee’s proceedings will be made available to the Department of Justice to assist in the investigation.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman, Chairman

Tom Davis, Ranking Minority Member

For as much division as we saw before — historically, and especially with the last 7 years of extreme political bias from both Dems and Republicans — it’s amazing to see two conflicting party members united for a single cause and purpose — finding out whether they were duped by Clemens, their “great American hero.”

Just a little bit of help from baseball’s new “Uniter” and BOOM! Change.

So fear not, people of America, and baseball fans. Change is near, change is now.

And it comes by way of the man, the myth, the legend, the “great American hero”:

The Rocket.