It seems George Soros is part of one group trying to buy the Washington Nationals, the team that MLB owns after swindling it out of Montreal.
This is just too much for wingnut House Republicans, following the Bushite rule that only Republicans like Bush, Steinbrenner, etc., can own MLB teams.
The McCarthyite denigration of Soros is evidently a new Luntz-GOP meme (Soros is foreign, Jewish, rich and hates Bush), so the Miami Mob Leader (John Sweeney, R-NY) throws a brushback pitch that MLB mandarins will have to pay attention to.
More below.
Here's what the Miami Mob Leader had to say regarding Soros' possible part-ownership of the Nationals, according to Roll Call, via the
DCCC:
Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.), vice chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that covers the District of Columbia budget, said if Soros buys the team and seeks public funding for the new stadium or anything else, the GOP attitude would be, "Let him pay for it."
"We're not going to interfere with [the sale], but from a fan's perspective, who needs the politics?" Sweeney said.
Yeah, they're not interfering with the sale, just like Sweeney's "Shut it down" order to Republican hooligans in Miami was in the finest traditions of American democracy.
The Miami Mob Leader was not the only Congressional blackmailer quoted in the story:
"I think Major League Baseball understands the stakes," said Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis (R), the Northern Virginia lawmaker who recently convened high-profile steroid hearings. "I don't think they want to get involved in a political fight."
Davis, whose panel also oversees District of Columbia issues, said that if a Soros sale went through, "I don't think it's the Nats that get hurt. I think it's Major League Baseball that gets hurt. They enjoy all sorts of exemptions" from anti-trust laws.
The hypocrisy is that, when Bush was the front man for the Texas Rangers, he helped set up a new stadium deal that screwed local taxpayers and stole private property, but ended up netting him more than $10 million.
IOKIYAR*, as blog skeptics say.
* It's OK if you're a Republican.