Is Soros Too Anti-Bush for Baseball?

The folks over at the Marginal Revolution point us to a story that is both frightening and insane: a political litmus test to buy a baseball team. Quoting the Washington Post:

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.

"It's not necessarily smart business sense to have anybody who is so polarizing in the political world," Rep. John E. Sweeney (R-N.Y.) said. "That goes for anybody, but especially as it relates to Major League Baseball because it's one of the few businesses that get incredibly special treatment from Congress and the federal government."

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."

The full story is here.

I think this move makes sense. Remember how the Democrats blocked Rupert Murdoch's ownership of the Dodgers because of his virulent conservatism, and the way his media peddled trash about the Clintons? And how the Republians earlier tried to stop Ted Turner from buying the Braves because he's a liberal fan of the UN? Oh. Wait. Those things didn't happen.

Here's what I actually think. Baseball's anti-trust exemption SHOULD be repealed, because it is bad for baseball, bad for fans, and very bad for the local governments that get suckered into subsidizing stadiums by teams that--by virtue of their artificial scarcity--can terrorize politicians with threats to leave. One of the great beneficiaries of this market-distorting cartel was none other than George W. Bush, whose Texas Rangers did little on the field while he was their part-owner, but did manage, off the field, to extort a massive handout from the city of Arlington.

That said, the anti-trust exemption should NOT be repealed simply because a prominent liberal might buy a baseball team. That is appalling, and from the "party of business" it is doubly so. Something has gone horribly wrong if ideas like these are being seriously debated in the halls of Congress. This should be a major scandal, on the front pages of newspapers--not getting kicked around the blogosphere.

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