Philadelphia ? One by one, the members of the Senate Commerce Committee leaned forward into the microphones last week and took a good look at Donald Fehr, trying to determine if he had any wings left that could still be removed.

By the end of a long day’s testimony, the senators had determined that Paul Tagliabue and Gene Upshaw, the NFL’s commissioner and union chief, were great guys doing all they can to eliminate performance-enhancing drugs in sports.

Terry Madden, CEO of the recently formed United States Anti-Doping Agency, an overseer of the U.S. Olympic team, is a great guy, too, and, darn it all, that goes for baseball commissioner Bud Selig.

But Donald Fehr, well, that was a different story. Fehr, the head of the baseball players’ association, was the target, a fish placed in the barrel for the amusement of national legislators who like nothing better than a roomful of television cameras and an enemy who can’t fight back.

The committee, chaired by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, did an extremely thorough job of oversimplifying the vastly complicated problem of drug use in sports. Judging by the hearing, it would appear that Fehr’s stubborn leadership of the union can be blamed not only for the steroid abuse that is assumed to be rampant in baseball, but he might also be responsible for global warming, high gas prices and seat belts that refuse to retract.

“Your sport is about to become a fraud in the minds of the American people,” McCain told Fehr, apparently pronouncing sentence on a case that has yet to reach trial.

The obvious question, if McCain and the others believe baseball is tainted by steroid use, is: Where have you been for the last five years?

It has been that long since Mark McGwire basked in the glow of an andro-aided 70-home-run 1998 season, one that was followed quickly by Barry Bonds hitting a comical 73 home runs at age 37, merely 24 more than his previous high. It has been at least that long since a glut of puffy-faced freaks made a mockery of the game.

But the real problem with the Senate’s late attention, fueled by federal indictments in the BALCO case that involve Bonds’ trainer, among others, is that it hinges on an easy caricature. Namely, it is that the other sports are now clean and baseball had better fall in line or, or … well, McCain never really came up with the or-else, but he rattled the Senate’s saber at Fehr, and it sure played well on television.

To put it simply, it is a joke told with a straight face.

“To hear them praising the NFL had me about gagging,” said Charles Yesalis, a Penn State professor and international expert on the subject of performance-enhancing drugs. Yesalis helped prepare the material for the hearing and had a front-row seat for the public flogging of Fehr and the bouquets tossed elsewhere.

“I’ve said for some time that I don’t believe that, on a percentage basis, there are more baseball players using illegal drugs than players in the NFL or the Olympics,” Yesalis said. “Yes, baseball is watered down, but in the NFL and even the Olympics, there are so many loopholes.”

Selig, who always looks like someone trying to find the windshield wipers in a strange car, was once again little more than inept. The senators weren’t after him, though, so he emerged unscathed. As did the NFL. As did the NBA and the Olympics.