The chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regrets holding the hearing with pitcher Roger Clemens and his former trainer Brian McNamee, the New York Times reported.

"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," chairman Henry A. Waxman, a Democrat of California, told the Times.

"I'm sorry we had the hearing. I regret that we had the hearing. And the only reason we had the hearing was because Roger Clemens and his lawyers insisted on it."

While the decision to hold the hearing was made in January, after the release of the Mitchell Report -- an investigation on steroids use in baseball -- but Waxman told the New York Times that he and Tom Davis of Virginia, a former chairman of the committee, decided last week that there was no longer a need to hold the hearing. The pair decided that the depositions taken from Clemens, McNamee, Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch were thorough, and the committee staff had already held its own investigation, so Waxman and Davis didn't feel the hearing would offer a lot of new details.

But, according to Waxman, Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young award winner, wanted to have the hearing.

"Roger Clemens's lawyers told us he wanted the opportunity to make his case in public," Waxman told the newspaper. "He had his opportunity."

Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, disagreed with Waxman's assertions, telling the New York Times his statements were "unbelievable, disingenuous and outrageous." Hardin also said that he and his staff requested that the hearing be called off weeks ago.

The pitcher's lawyer added that once the depositions were held last week that Clemens felt he had to proceed with the hearing to get everything out in the open, Hardin told the Times.

According to the newspaper, Waxman has not yet decided whether Clemens would be referred to the Department of Justice for investigation into possible perjury charges.

The pitcher testified under oath that he did not use performance-enhancing drugs during his career, despite McNamee's claims that he injected Clemens.

Hearing Causes Bipartisan Bickering

Party lines were drawn during Wednesday's hearing, as Republicans seemed to favor in side of Clemens and the Democrats sided with McNamee in their he said-he said battle over steroids accusations.

"Of all the things to become partisan over," Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, told The Associated Press, "this was the wrong one."

During the hearing, Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut called McNamee a "drug dealer" while some Democrats questioned Clemens' credibility.

One of McNamee's lawyers, Richard Emery, thought the hearing became of bipartisan affair because of Clemens' connections to the Bush family. During the hearing the pitcher recalled a phone call he received from former President George H.W. Bush, which Emery thinks may have caused some of the Republicans to treat McNamee unfairly. The lawyer even predicted Thursday that President George W. Bush would pardon Clemens if he should be charged or convicted with anything related to the hearing. Clemens' lawyers disagreed with Emery's prediction.

"Richard Emery just has to quit smoking his own dope," Rusty Hardin, one of Clemens' attorneys, told The Associated Press.

A spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, of California, told the AP that the hearing took on a partisan tone because Republican members felt the hearing was too focused on Clemens instead of broader concerns in the Mitchell Report.