The gops in peanut heaven

A few weeks ago, I was involved in an argument with Nationals fans who were gops on the day after George Soros announced his intention to join an ownership group to buy the Nationals. The Nationals blogs were lit up with anger. The gops said they would demand refunds for their season tickets and would stop attending games. Today, Sally Jenkins of Wapo discusses the issue.

Some Republican lawmakers don't think George Soros should be permitted to purchase a Major League Baseball team because he's too liberal and he has some wacky notions. I must have been napping, and that's why I missed the part where we became a country in which Democrats are no longer allowed to buy things.

If lawmakers start banning people from owning ballclubs just because of their politics or because they have a few woo-woo ideas, there are going to be a lot of shuttered ballparks. Anybody who tries to say that MLB owners should meet a certain standard of political correctness will get knocked back on their butts every time by two simple words: Marge Schott.

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."

I don't much care about George Soros, and I don't care at all which rich guy gets the privilege of spending $400 million in heavy sugar on the Nats. But I do care when members of a ruling party start pushing people around, because next, it could be me. This is supposed to be the party that doesn't believe in government telling business or private citizens what to do. So here's what I have to say to Davis about that: Get your boot off my front porch, mister.

...

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. It's one thing to threaten MLB for failing to govern drug usage -- Congress was quite right to do that. It's quite another to threaten it over one prospective owner's politics. In doing so, Davis and Sweeney just cost themselves all credibility.

...

Okay, Soros is a convicted felon in France. George Steinbrenner is a convicted felon in this country. A pardoned one, but still.

Lest gops forget, Soros was a major player in the downfall of Communism in Eastern Europe. (I know they like to give Reagan all the credit, but I sometimes question whether Reagan even knew the Soviet Union was collapsing.) He has spent millions (billions?) on philanthropy. Though he's had shady deals in the investment world, he's not exactly a heartless, evil guy. He certainly doesn't deserve all that righty hatred.

"I don't think I'll be getting good season tickets if he gets the team," Davis admitted.

Aww... you may just have to stand in line like the rest of us instead of getting special privledges. Wanker.