Master plan?

Probe might be just what `Rocket' wanted all along

On the Roger Clemens investigation

Of course, no responsible attorney would encourage his client to put himself in such legal jeopardy, but Clemens seemed committed from the outset to an all-or-nothing effort to clear his name.

And it might not be such a gamble, anyway. The Justice Department will have to open the investigation or face the appearance of selective prosecution because it already has indicted Barry Bonds on perjury and obstruction charges, but the likelihood of convicting Clemens with an untrustworthy character such as McNamee as the chief prosecution witness seems slim.

That should have been obvious at the Feb. 13 hearing, during which several committee members attacked McNamee's credibility with accounts of earlier steroid denials and - in one case - alleged false statements to police in an unrelated sexual assault investigation.

Even with the damaging testimony of Pettitte and the handful of factual inconsistencies in Clemens' sworn testimony, it takes only one juror to smell a steroid-dispensing rat, and "The Rocket" can say forever that his credibility has been confirmed in a court of law.

That's why, in the end, the Justice Department probably will choose not to indict Clemens, which also will provide cover for a guy willing to grab on to any small measure of vindication.

If all this seems a bit far-fetched, consider the alternative: There was no strategy at all, just a stubborn client and a series of inexplicable missteps by a couple of the best minds in the legal world.

Well, there is that.

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Listen to Peter Schmuck on WBAL (1090 AM) at noon most Saturdays and Sundays.