To me, hearing this story was just stunning. Its good to see the R's attacking the issues that matter to us, like whether George Soros can be a minority owner of the Nats.
And no, I'm not kidding, at least Sally Jenkins beats him up over it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/28/AR2005062801511.html?sub=AR
More below:
There are so many disturbing things about this article, I don't even know where to begin.
It was all right for Schott, the racist collector of Nazi memorabilia, to own a baseball team for years, but it's not for Soros, the billion-dollar philanthropist and Nobel Prize nominee?
That's exactly what some Republicans on Capitol Hill are suggesting, led by Tom Davis, the Republican from Virginia who is trying to steer the sale of the Nationals and who says Soros is just not the kind of person "we need or want in the nation's capital."
What exactly is Davis saying here? Maybe we should ban him from any business in DC? Should we just ban him period from DC? Jesus.
An even nastier abuse came from Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.), who actually suggested baseball's antitrust exemption might be in trouble on the Hill if MLB let Soros have the Nats.
I guess that ends of the idea of free enterprise eh? Let a Democrat have a minority interest and we will destroy your industry. This is sick.
You can't help wondering what's behind the outrageous attack on Soros, who isn't even a major partner in the bid for the Nats. (Local entrepreneur Jon Ledecky is the real bidder.) Isn't it strange that rival bidder Fred Malek, the head of the Washington Baseball club, just happens to be a very big GOP fundraiser? And isn't it strange that, in a telephone interview, Davis went out of his way to praise Malek's bid? And isn't it strange that these attacks on Soros from Republicans came on the very day that Ledecky and his partners were being interviewed by MLB?
Davis doesn't bother to hide his agenda. He says straight out that baseball needs to cultivate some good will on Capitol Hill at the moment, given the steroid investigations, and that selling the team to billionaire Soros, a critic of President Bush and a massive financial supporter of liberal causes, would anger him.
"They could use some friends on the Hill right now, and this is not the way to make them," Davis said yesterday
Isn't this illegal? Can a Congressman really step in and threaten the use of government power if the guy he wants doesn't get the bid. This seems like quid pro quo and that is truly unacceptable.
And then of course, there is just good old fashion bigotry:
But Davis has another problem with Soros, too. He's an "out of towner." Listening to Davis, you wonder if he's next going to say Soros's Hungarian accent is too thick.
"I mean, to me, Soros is the guy who has so much money and wants to buy the world," Davis said. "I mean that's not what baseball's about. This is above all a fan sport. This is the Nationals, and they're going to give it to some multinational?"
I won't post the entire article, but there is plenty more in the link. I find this utterly disturbing however. Call Davis's office and tell him that Republicans used to believe in the free market. Keep your fucking hands off.