Don't be fooled by all the publicity.

Power is still abused a lot more often than steroids. So let's thank Congress for turning up the heat on pro sports and respectfully ask that its members go back to holding hearings on problems they actually know something about. Just because somebody said, "There ought to be a law against it," doesn't mean it's a good idea - let alone good enough for two.

But that's exactly where celebrity-enamored congressmen are headed. One bill has already been proposed by Florida Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns - the Drug Free Sports Act of 2005 - and Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain could introduce a second before the week is out. Enough sports stars, commissioners, and their legal mouthpieces have been summoned to Washington, D.C. - or will be in the coming days - that C-SPAN is beginning to look like ESPN4.

"It would be easier for the sports if they would work with us," Stearns warned Tuesday, "instead of against us."

But the people in charge of those sports would be abdicating their responsibilities if they did. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig apparently got religious since the last time he was called up on the hill. But don't expect any of his fellow czars or players' union bosses lined up to testify before two separate House committees to go along quite so meekly.

They get paid handsomely to guard their leagues' independence, and they've got almost as much high-powered legal help on retainer. So while they'll show plenty of deference, count on every one of them to follow the example NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue set during his testimony several weeks ago and politely suggest the lawmakers butt out.

That's not because each sport is without drug-testing problems, past and present. And in fairness, without the pressure the spate of congressional hearings is bringing to bear, those problems would have continued to fester. The owners and players weren't going to be bullied by the media, nor swayed by a public that tsk-tsks all the time, yet snaps up tickets as fast as they can be printed.

But as Selig's conversion and the more reasonable stances adopted by the unions have demonstrated, the message has reached the intended audience. The programs in place around the leagues are beginning to show results, and they're going to get tougher, if only to spare the commissioners the cost of hiring lobbyists.

Any legislation at this point will be a waste of paper, and the bill being fronted by Stearns is already. It proposes to bring drug-testing procedures, banned substances and penalties in line with Olympic standards - a two-year suspension for a first offense, a lifetime ban for a second - and slap any league that fails to comply with a minimum $5 million fine. It's a one-size-fits-all solution that doesn't fit any sport well.

The testing schedule already in place for Major League Baseball is more frequent and random than the one called for in the bill. The NBA would have to spend a small fortune to expand its current testing program to look for a wide range of performance-enhancers that have no practical applications for basketball.

The NFL, which already spends $10 million a year on its drug program and has consistently received the backing of its players union in such initiatives, put ephedra on its banned list before the government did.

Imposing a testing program on the NHL, which effectively has none, is sure to raise some very delicate Fourth Amendment issues. And Major League Soccer's new collective bargaining agreement already gives commissioner Don Garber the power to terminate any player for a first offense.

Stearns said he planned "to ask these commissioners and the union people why they should not be subject to the same standards that are used in the Olympics. The burden is on them to explain why."

Where to begin? The Olympics are held every four years, every sport is different, and to replace all the research, experience and specific knowledge the leagues gained on their crawl toward accountability with a general model would be like reinventing the wheel.

The 30-day appeal process set out in Stearns' bill is unrealistically short, it's not clear whether the World Anti-Doping Agency, which administers the Olympic program, or the Secretary of Commerce makes the call on which substances to test for, and it doesn't make it clear if players can take supplements that Congress itself has already determined are safe and effective for use by the rest of Americans.

Maybe we couldn't trust the leagues to get it right on their own before now. But there's plenty of evidence to suggest that they have - at long last - and the longer the hearings stretch on, the sooner the bosses at the WNBA, the Arena League and the Professional Bowlers Association are going to demand equal time.