Major League Baseball hasn't narrowed the list of the eight bidders seeking to buy the Washington Nationals and some Republicans on Capitol Hill already are hinting at revoking the league's antitrust exemption if billionaire financier George Soros , an ardent critic of President Bush and supporter of liberal causes, buys the team.
...Rep. Tom M. Davis III (R-Va.), who was a strong supporter of bringing a baseball team to Virginia, told Roll Call yesterday that "Major League Baseball understands the stakes" if Soros buys the team. "I don't think they want to get involved in a political fight."Davis is the chariman for the Committee on Government Reform, which recently held the hearings on steroids in professional sports.
While I'm agnostic on whether Major League Baseball should continue to hold its anti-trust exemption, or even the exemption's value to the sport, I'm certainly not in favor of any Congressional Committee using it as a club to force MLB to sell a franchise to someone the Committee deems acceptable.
Lashing out at Soros as part of some partisan vendetta is not in the Congressional job description. Attacking property rights for partisan political reasons is an activity beyond the pale of what's acceptable. I don't care if the other side did it or does it or whatever. I don't care if the US Supreme Court suddenly finds new grounds for destroying property rights. Congress should not try create a role for itself in deciding who the new owners should be for the Washington Nationals.
Perhaps Congressman Davis should spend some time talking with Senator John Cornyn who seems to have a much better understanding of property rights (via The Volokh Conspiracy).
Update!4:23pm Radley Balko at The Agitator makes a great point:
The funny thing is, this apparently is legal. But if a few friends and I want to chip in to buy a television commercial to criticize Davis for such a bald abuse of his power in the last days of his next reelection campaign, the law says we aren't allowed.
Update!7:33am Spelling corrected on Pastime. Still looks funny to me.
