Monday, December 6 2004
THE GOVERNMENT ON 'ROIDS: Yesterday on FOX News Sunday Senator John McCain said it's time to to "introduce legislation if necessary" to deal with the ongoing steroid scandal in Major League Baseball. McCain offered the following justification:

Now, somebody watching right now is going to say, "How is it any of your business?" Anti-trust exemption was granted by Congress to organize baseball, and also it's got to do with interstate commerce. So we do have a role to play.

"We do have a role to play." Interesting phrase. You don't have to be an unrepentant free-market libertarian to see this as a colossal overreach and a true waste of government resources.

Let me digress for a moment to say that I am not even remotely close to an expert on this issue. But the anti-trust exemption McCain is talking about originated in a 1922 decision by the Supreme Court. Furthermore, the exemption's primary aspect over the years has dealt with the ability of owners to move franchises and players to move among teams. Finally, no other sport has ever been granted a similar exemption, though boxing, football, basketball, hockey and golf antitrust exemptions have all been sought - and denied - by the courts.

Back to the issue at hand. McCain says we must pass legislation for the good of kids everywhere:

The important aspect of this issue is not Barry Bonds or Jason Giambi or Gary Sheffield. The important aspect of this issue is that high school kids all over America believe that this is the only way they can make it. Ask any high school coach.

This is the tragedy of steroids. And we all know that it will destroy a young person's body. And that's why we've got to bring this to a halt.

McCain says it's not about the individual players, it's about the drugs. He wants to separate the two, because otherwise you'll know that what he's really trying to do is legislate the behavior and the ethics of role models in professional sports - something that simply can't be done.

Barry Bonds is a hero to hundreds of thousands of kids around the country. But it also looks like he's a cheater. That's a crushing blow to some and a disappointment to others, but the choices Barry Bonds or Jason Giambi or Gary Sheffield make are not something the U.S. government should be involved in trying to manage.

Major League Baseball is a business and a brand. They can and should manage their business in whatever manner they see fit to try and make it both as popular and profitable as possible. If Bud Selig thinks it is in baseball's best interest to have a bunch of jacked-up roid mongers swatting balls out of the park every night, fine. But odds are he won't do that because in the long run it will lessen the appeal of the nation's favorite passtime. In other words, it's bad for business.

It's the same reason David Stern dropped the hammer on Ron Artest and friends last month in response to the Pistons-Pacers brawl. Stern is concerned, quite rightfully, that the NBA brand is jeopardy of being overrun by the image that NBA players are out of control thugs.

Unfortunately, t he one thing that McCain is probably right about is that President Bush would "love" to sign legislation mandating drug testing in baseball. President Bush is a fan of baseball. So am I. But I also believe in smaller, less intrusive government. Isn't that what the President constantly says he believes in too?

THE BIG, BAD BCS: While we're on the subject of sports, the undefeated Auburn Tigers and the Cal Bears, whose only loss came against top-ranked USC, got shafted by the BCS last night. Instead, Big East champ Pittsburgh got a birth in the Fiesta Bowl with a 9-3 record.

I suggest we get John McCain to propose new legislation to deal with the unfairness of the BCS formula. Young people's lives are being ruined by it.

Congress has already tried unsuccessfully to meddle on this issue once before, but what the heck. Since there are millions of additional dollars at stake for BCS Bowl bids, McCain can claim government authority under the auspices of regulating "interstate commerce." And Bush can sign the bill because he's a big fan of college football.

THE OBSESSION OVER NEWSPAPER ENDORSEMENTS: People obsess over newspaper endorsements every election year. This year, however, you may recall in the two weeks leading up to the election many on the left and in the media seemed particularly obsessed with them.

Specifically, there was a great deal of attention paid to the fact that some 40-plus papers that endorsed George W. Bush in 2000 either switched to endorse Kerry or refused to endorse a candidate at all. The suggestion made by some was that this shift among the editorial class was a possible harbinger of a move against Bush among the broader electorate. I guess not.

According to Wikpedia, Kerry finished the endorsement race with 208 papers with circulation totaling 20,791,336 and Bush came in with 189 newspaper endorsements with a combined circulation of 14,455,046.

One final ironic twist. This year, the percentage of endorsements each candidate received represented an almost exact inversion of the percentage of electoral college votes they received:

	Newspaper Endorsements	Electoral College Votes
Bush	47.6% (189)	53.2% (286)
Kerry	52.4% (208)	46.8% (252)

This year merely confirmed yet again what we know to be true: while newspaper endorsements have some influence in local and state races where voters may not know the candidates and are seeking some guidance, at the federal level newspaper endorsements don't mean squat. Of course, this won't stop some from obsessing over who endorses whom in 2008. - T. Bevan 10:30 am Link | Email | Send to a Friend