DETROIT - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig says remarks by a congressional committee chairman against billionaire George Soros won't be considered as the sport weighs offers for the Washington Nationals.

Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican who chairs the House Government Reform Committee, told Roll Call last month that "major league baseball understands the stakes" if the group Soros is a part of purchases the first-place team.

"It has no affect on how we select the ownership in Washington," Selig said Tuesday during a pre-All-Star game question-and-answer session with the Baseball Writers' Association of America. "This is a baseball decision. It is not a political decision, nor should politics interfere with any decision we're making."

Soros, who supports liberal causes, and his Soros Fund Management are partners in the Big Train Holdco Bid, headed by former Washington Capitals part-owner Jon Ledecky. Davis chaired congressional hearings critical of baseball's steroids rules and has pushed for federal legislation to override them.

"I don't think they want to get involved in a political fight," Roll Call quoted Davis as saying.

"I don't think it's the Nationals that get hurt. I think it's Major League Baseball that gets hurt. They enjoy all sorts of exemptions," he said, referring to the sport's antitrust exemption.

As many as eight groups are bidding for the Nationals, the former Montreal Expos. The franchise was purchased by the other 29 clubs before the 2002 season and moved to Washington last winter.

"Davis certainly didn't intend to politicize the subject," said Dave Marin, a spokesman for the congressman. "He was asked by a single reporter for his opinion on George Soros owning the Nationals, and he simply said he hoped that didn't happen."

Selig anticipates the team will be sold within a few months.

"We're moving along," he said. "I'm very confident it will be done this summer, no question, have a new owner there."

Selig originally hoped to sell the team by 2003 but said there were reasons the process has dragged out.

"Do I wish we could have done this a year or two ago? Of course," he said. "The cities weren't ready. They couldn't produce on stadiums. The political process, as those of you from the Baltimore-Washington area know, moves slowly, and not only there but everywhere."