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Republicans Threaten MLB With Repeal of Antitrust Exemption if Soros Buys Nationals
Who do these guys think they are?!?
Quote:
Soros' bid for Nationals gets political
By Hal Bodley, USA TODAY
Republicans in Congress threatened Major League Baseball on Monday with repeal of its antitrust exemption if billionaire financier George Soros is involved in buying the Washington Nationals.
Soros, who contributed more than $20 million to groups in an attempt to unseat President Bush last year, recently joined an ownership group led by entrepreneur Jonathan Ledecky.
Seven groups have submitted bids for the former Montreal Expos franchise, which has been owned by the other 29 major league teams since 2002.
"I think Major League Baseball understands the stakes," House Government Reform chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., told Roll Call.
"I don't think they want to get involved in the political fights."
Davis, who convened the recent congressional hearings on steroids, added, "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 antitrust laws."
Richard Levin, spokesman for Commissioner Bud Selig, responded, "We make decisions based on the best interests of the club and Major League Baseball."
Said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Democratic Policy Committee, in a statement: "Tom Davis should be charged with an error for this abusive political power play.
"It should be offensive not just to Democrats, but to all voting Americans that Republicans might manipulate the legislative process for partisan purposes in response to the potential purchase of a baseball team by someone who does not support the current Republican agenda."
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Totally, this guy needs to be outsted. This is outrageous, egreigous, and any other "ous" you can think of.
Add Mr. Davis to the list of political schnooks that need to be run out of office. This is a clear overstep of his authority and should be subject to censure and rebuke from both sides of the isle.
If he was heading a committe he has some clout, it disgusts me that this would come up at all. It show the depths some leading members of the GOP will go to.
Yet you still find reasons to excuse them 40, I havn't seen you say this is wrong, why is that ?
Now as to if MLB should be the onlu sport with an anti-trust exemption, that is another matter.
I don't know if I'm reading this right, but Tom Davis is "The Republicans"? Won't it take more than 1 guy to get this accomplished?
There is more than one:
FREEDOM FROM POLITICS. About a decade ago I spent a summer working in a laboratory alongside a virologist who had served in the Bulgarian navy in his youth. In addition to being among the most unflinchingly tough individuals I'd ever met, he was completely uninterested in American politics.
That, for him, was one of the attractions of America. After growing up in communist Bulgaria, where, as he explained it, everything was determined by party and politics, being free to ignore politics and not worry about party was a form of liberation. And being free to live in a world where decisions about jobs and housing and power were made on merit instead of corrupt connections with party officials was a privilege.
When we think of political freedom, we normally think of such rights as freedom of assembly or the right to vote. But freedom from politics is also an essential form of human liberty. And that means the freedom to engage in and pursue otherwise permitted commercial activities without agents of the state stepping in and demanding that transactions first be vetted for allegiance to party.
That's why the blatant attempt, reported in Roll Call (subscription only) this morning, to threaten Major League Baseball if they sell the Washington Nationals to hedge-fund billionaire and Democratic financier George Soros is so disturbing:
While the Soros-Ledecky group is not seen as the frontrunner to win the bidding for the Nationals, who should be awarded to their new owner at the end of the 2005 season, the very prospect that Soros could have a stake in the team is enough to irritate Congressional Republicans.
“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.
Indeed, Hill Republicans could potentially make life difficult for MLB in a variety of ways. ... The Nats, meanwhile, hope to have a publicly-funded stadium built soon, though money for that venture is expected to come through the sale of bonds rather than a federal outlay.
Still, 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.”
Another senior Republican lawmaker who requested anonymity said that the league should be aware of the perception problem that might be associated with selling the Nats to Soros. “Why would Major League Baseball want to get involved with George Soros?” said the lawmaker. “It’s about more than just the sale price.”
Certainly, Soros is an extraordinarily politically active individual, but the question at issue doesn't seem to be political activity per se but whether or not that activity supports the ruling party. Who are the leading competitors to buy the team? None other than a group of politically active Republicans.
Soros isn’t the only political big-shot looking to buy the Nats. The ownership group seen by many insiders as the frontrunner to buy the team includes Fred Malek, a close friend of President Bush, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Another bidding group includes ex-Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.).
Fred Malek's presence in the competing Republican buyer group makes the Republican threats against baseball if the Jewish, Democratic Soros becomes a buyer even creepier. Malek, lest readers forget, was Richard Nixon's official Jew counter. According to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's book, The Final Days (via Slate):
Late in 1971, Nixon had summoned the White House personnel chief, Fred Malek, to his office to discuss a "Jewish cabal" in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The "cabal," Nixon said, was tilting economic figures to make his Administration look bad. How many Jews were there in the bureau? he wanted to know. Malek reported back on the number, and told the President that the bureau's methods of weighing statistics were normal procedure that had been in use for years.
Now, Malek has long been a booster of baseball in the Washington region, so it's not a huge surprise that he should be a lead competitor for the local team. But, according to Tim Noah's 2001 piece, "Malek is best known in political circles for resigning in 1988 as George Bush's hand-picked deputy chairman for the Republican National Committee after the Post's Walter Pincus and Bob Woodward reported that 17 years earlier Malek had, at Richard Nixon's request, counted the number of Jews then working for the Bureau of Labor Statistics." Malek was later rehabilitated by George W. Bush, whose syndicate to buy the Texas Rangers Malek joined in 1988.
Ragging on Soros isn't about keeping politics out of the game -- it's about furthering the interests of ruling party loyalists. --Garance Franke-Ruta
FREEDOM FROM POLITICS. About a decade ago I spent a summer working in a laboratory alongside a virologist who had served in the Bulgarian navy in his youth. In addition to being among the most unflinchingly tough individuals I'd ever met, he was completely uninterested in American politics.
That, for him, was one of the attractions of America. After growing up in communist Bulgaria, where, as he explained it, everything was determined by party and politics, being free to ignore politics and not worry about party was a form of liberation. And being free to live in a world where decisions about jobs and housing and power were made on merit instead of corrupt connections with party officials was a privilege.
When we think of political freedom, we normally think of such rights as freedom of assembly or the right to vote. But freedom from politics is also an essential form of human liberty. And that means the freedom to engage in and pursue otherwise permitted commercial activities without agents of the state stepping in and demanding that transactions first be vetted for allegiance to party.
That's why the blatant attempt, reported in Roll Call (subscription only) this morning, to threaten Major League Baseball if they sell the Washington Nationals to hedge-fund billionaire and Democratic financier George Soros is so disturbing:
While the Soros-Ledecky group is not seen as the frontrunner to win the bidding for the Nationals, who should be awarded to their new owner at the end of the 2005 season, the very prospect that Soros could have a stake in the team is enough to irritate Congressional Republicans.
“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.
Indeed, Hill Republicans could potentially make life difficult for MLB in a variety of ways. ... The Nats, meanwhile, hope to have a publicly-funded stadium built soon, though money for that venture is expected to come through the sale of bonds rather than a federal outlay.
Still, 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.”
Another senior Republican lawmaker who requested anonymity said that the league should be aware of the perception problem that might be associated with selling the Nats to Soros. “Why would Major League Baseball want to get involved with George Soros?” said the lawmaker. “It’s about more than just the sale price.”
Certainly, Soros is an extraordinarily politically active individual, but the question at issue doesn't seem to be political activity per se but whether or not that activity supports the ruling party. Who are the leading competitors to buy the team? None other than a group of politically active Republicans.
Soros isn’t the only political big-shot looking to buy the Nats. The ownership group seen by many insiders as the frontrunner to buy the team includes Fred Malek, a close friend of President Bush, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Another bidding group includes ex-Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.).
Fred Malek's presence in the competing Republican buyer group makes the Republican threats against baseball if the Jewish, Democratic Soros becomes a buyer even creepier. Malek, lest readers forget, was Richard Nixon's official Jew counter. According to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's book, The Final Days (via Slate):
Late in 1971, Nixon had summoned the White House personnel chief, Fred Malek, to his office to discuss a "Jewish cabal" in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The "cabal," Nixon said, was tilting economic figures to make his Administration look bad. How many Jews were there in the bureau? he wanted to know. Malek reported back on the number, and told the President that the bureau's methods of weighing statistics were normal procedure that had been in use for years.
Now, Malek has long been a booster of baseball in the Washington region, so it's not a huge surprise that he should be a lead competitor for the local team. But, according to Tim Noah's 2001 piece, "Malek is best known in political circles for resigning in 1988 as George Bush's hand-picked deputy chairman for the Republican National Committee after the Post's Walter Pincus and Bob Woodward reported that 17 years earlier Malek had, at Richard Nixon's request, counted the number of Jews then working for the Bureau of Labor Statistics." Malek was later rehabilitated by George W. Bush, whose syndicate to buy the Texas Rangers Malek joined in 1988.
Ragging on Soros isn't about keeping politics out of the game -- it's about furthering the interests of ruling party loyalists. --Garance Franke-Ruta
Davis is the only guy threatening to pull the anti-trust exemption. Sweeny said if Soros was seeking public funding, he would have a problem with it. Far cry from pulling the anti trust exemption. As usual in an article like this, we have an annonymous source to verify it.
I have a hard time understanding why you guys don't see where any Republican could have bad feelings against Soros. A foreigner with big bucks comes in and tries to buy an American presidential election?
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