McNamee’s as far from a hero as country music is from hip hop, but as often as Rep. Dan Burton called him a liar and a drug dealer, only someone blinded by hero-worship could rationalize away his accusations. The only substantive question raised was over whether the trainer first talked to Clemens about performance-enhancing drugs 10 years ago at a barbecue hosted in Florida by Jose Canseco, an affair both Clemens and Canseco say the pitcher did not attend.

The problem that no one picked up on is if Clemens was not at the barbecue, his wife and children were staying at the Canseco home. That tells me that Clemens and Canseco were pretty close friends. Canseco’s made no secret of his own drug use, and he was an evangelist of performance-enhancers while he was playing. By their friends shall you know them.

Then there was the curious question of the nanny who was also at the party and may have been able to corroborate either McNamee’s or Clemens’ version of events. The subcommittee asked to contact her last Friday and met with her Monday — a day after Clemens flew her out to his ranch to tell her to be sure to tell the truth.

It was like a bad TV show. McNamee admitted lying repeatedly over the years, which makes him a liar now. Clemens denies ever lying about anything, which makes him a pillar of truth — he hopes.

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That, of course, is preposterous. It’s hard to believe that someone telling only the truth would need to lick his lips off. There’s no better way to convince people you’re lying about something than to insist that every word you’ve ever spoken is the absolute truth. If you really want to be believed, admit you were wrong on an insignificant detail or two.

That’s what saves McNamee: He’s a scoundrel and he admits it, while the only thing Clemens would admit to is being the cleanest-living, hardest-working, most-red-white-and-blue, God-fearing hero of the diamond the world has ever seen.

He needs a new story, because the one he told Congress isn’t working.

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