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From a news perspective, the baseball struggle story coming out of our nation's capital has been fascinating.

Deals, betrayals, gentrification politics, mayoral aspirations, the whole damn thing has been a grand drama, but I'm very interested in the way the Washington Post has been playing this -- mainly that D.C. was really stupid not to agree to wholly fund the building of a stadium all by itself, and, of course, that the demon in scotching the deal was a councilwoman named Linda Cropp. Here's the inemitable, hyperventilating Thomas Boswell:

The Nationals are gone. That didn't take long, did it? Save those hats with the tilted 'W' on the front. They'll be collectors' items before the week is over. Only a miracle could save Washington's deal with baseball now. Cropp killed it. Whether she did it out of civic conscience, as she claims, or pique, or political aspiration or simply -- and this is a possibility -- a general ignorance of the waters in which she was swimming, is a question for the future.

Well, who says? These columnists keep talking about how MLB must feel really bad because, geez, a "deal," capital "D" had been in place, and now don't they look stupid? Sure, but the city isn't run by a despot (at least not yet) and the laws say that the council has a say-so, too. And perhaps it isn't such a great idea for the District to foot the entire bill, raise taxes, play funny with numbers and give free money to millionares while the schools are disintegrating and drugs and shootings and crime are just as bad as ever, despite this so-called "renaissance." Maybe she has a conscience, no?