Brian McNamee’s lawyer, Richard Emery, told Ronald Blum of the ASSOCIATED PRESS today that he thinks if Roger Clemens gets convicted “in connection with the baseball steroids scandal, he’d be pardoned by President Bush.”

He also said “some Republicans treated his client harshly because of the pitcher’s friendship with the Bush family.”

It did appear that criticism of Clemens and McNamee was dictated by party lines, as most Democrats grilled Clemens on his laughable inconsistencies in testimony. And Republicans did the same with McNamee.

More Emery: “It would be the easiest thing in the world for George W. Bush, given the corrupt proclivities of his administration, to say Roger Clemens is an American hero, Roger Clemens helped children. It’s my belief they have some reason to believe they can get a pardon.”

It’s probably not a coincidence that Clemens touted his friendship with President Bush’s father George H. W. Bush during yesterday’s hearing - mentioning that senior Bush offered support in recent phone call.

Clemens: “When all this happened, the former president of the United States found me in a deer blind in south Texas and expressed his concerns that this was unbelievable, and stay strong and hold your head up high.”

Emery: “All the pieces fell into place given his friendship, his personal friendship with the Bush family. They have some belief that even if he’s prosecuted, he will never have to serve jail time or face a trail. This is a charade we’re going through.”

Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings agrees with Emery: “Of all the things to become partisan over, this was the wrong one. What we needed to be doing was to be in search of truth. And I think that when you are truly in search of truth, we need to put the partisan shoes at the door and walk in without them.”

We think the party breakdown thing may have been somewhat of a coincidence but we do think that President Bush would consider pardoning Clemens if he was convicted in a Federal trial. Bush has proven time after time that his misguided interests and personal friendships are more important to him than what serves the public good. Pardoning Clemens would be a despicable act, but not nearly as shameful as some of Bush’s past indiscretions.

Off the top of our head, some of those bad judgements include: his relationship to Saudi Arabia, his commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison term, and his willingness to put up with the abject incompetence of former FEMA head Mike Brown and CIA Director George Tenet.

With all that in mind, nothing Bush does surprises us. And Emery is definitely onto something.