“Come writers and critics, who prophesy with your pen,

And keep your eyes wide, the chance won’t come again,

But don’t speak too soon, for the wheel’s still in spin,

And there’s no tellin’ who it is namin’,

And the loser to now will be later to win,

For the times, they are a-changin’ ”

—Bob Dylan, “The Times, They Are A-Changin’”

While his former brethren reported to spring training, Roger Clemens was summoned to Capitol Hill to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs.

It was in essence the Mitchell Report vs. Clemens in a high-profile setting. But predictably, nothing came of it: Clemens professed his innocence while others assured the committee of his guilt. The offensive against the seven-time Cy Young award winner was led by Brian McNamee, the trainer who allegedly injected Clemens with steroids while he was with the New York Yankees. McNamee was the major source for the Mitchell Report.

Although nothing substantial is proven by the Report’s findings, Henry Waxman (D-Fla.), the chairman of the committee, decided that there was enough proof of Clemens’s guilt to start holding hearings.

Let’s take a pause and think about what could be achieved by such an endeavor — it is in our own interest, since hearings require our money and representatives’ time.

Neither Clemens nor McNamee is a trained public speaker — most ballplayers will keep their comments to the media short. A simple “we made a lot of progress tonight” will suffice. And trainers like McNamee almost never interact with the press.

Yet, they are expected to be interviewed for hours about specific moments years in the past by this country’s most ruthless and publicity-crazed judges: the U.S. Congress. Appearing in front of such a hostile committee — Waxman had said many times, on record, that he felt Clemens was guilty — would be intimidating to anyone.

It’s hard to believe that, in that situation, Clemens could say anything besides the obvious “I didn’t do it” with any gusto — and that is exactly what happened. He and McNamee went back and forth and said nothing that wasn’t already obvious. They were verbally beat up by Republicans and Democrats alike, but to no avail.

What we were left with was yet another inconclusive Congressional hearing into steroids that went so poorly that Waxman admitted the next day that he wished he hadn’t held the conference.

“I think Clemens and McNamee both came out quite sullied, and I didn’t think it was a hearing that needed to be held in order to get the facts out about the Mitchell report,” Waxman said to the New York Times.

Forget for a second that the Mitchell Report is nothing more than circumstantial testimony given by former clubhouse gophers that is discredited by baseball players, executives and the media alike: Waxman is admitting that this grotesque waste of resources — whose result was about as predictable as the sun rising in the east — served literally no purpose.

Waxman claims that Clemens wanted the hearing to prove his innocence in light of Andy Pettitte’s recent comments on Clemens’s guilt, but that reasoning is terribly flawed — not only were the hearings called before Pettitte’s comments, but who grasps at a chance to perjure themselves?

In actuality, the recent circus around steroids is mainly Waxman’s doing. After the good congressmen called for the hearings months ago while simultaneously declaring Clemens’s guilt, the media followed his lead, and almost immediately deemed Clemens guilty as well. The battle is won in the court of public opinion, and Clemens never had a chance. What ensued was a rush to judgment comparable to the Duke Lacrosse rape case. The hearings, at that point, became a necessity.

So, Mr. Waxman, who is lying now?

If Clemens and the other players in the Mitchell Report are guilty of steroid abuse, they deserve to be punished. But until there is definitive proof that they did, in fact, use performance enhancing drugs, Waxman and the rest of his committee must hold their judgment — and desire to hold hearings — in check.

In the meantime, aren’t there more demanding issues that require resolution from the U.S. Congress? Last I checked, we’re in the midst of an on-going war, along with a shaky economy and national infrastructure in ruins.

Baseball will be fine — surely our public servants have better things to do than lie to us and waste our time.