Yes, in a sport full of Hispanics, many of them dark-skinned, plus a small but significant number of African-American stars (does Ryan Howard ring a bell?), the ONLY possible reason for disliking Barry Bonds must be racism. Hey Joan -- luv ya, really, but why not examine the role of jerkism -- an irrational dislike of people who spend most of their 15,000 minutes of fame acting like jerks -- in the anti-Bonds feeling that holds forth in all the nation except the Bay area?

Hey Joan, that was the best line I heard you give on Scar since you started appearing. You were feisty and fantastic. Don't back down.

Hi biff, thanks for your advice. I did in fact remind Joe that Rep. Frank Wolf and other Republicans had just gone to Syria, too. Nancy Pelosi has nothing to apologize for, so I don't really think that line of reasoning plays out well. Gingrich apologizes again and again, yet continues his hypocrisy. I usually prefer to keep my retorts above the belt, but there's very little of Newt Gingrich that's above the belt.

You may also just call him Asterix, though that may get him confused with McGuire or the slew of of athletes* who had to use steroids (or steroid like substances) to beat records set by people fueled only by tobacco and booze.

Or (snicker) do you still think Bonds* is telling the truth? Yeah. Everybody goes through 4 hat sizes as an adult.

I guess that makes me a racist.

First, thanks for responding Ms. Walsh, I appreciate it. (I couldn't tell if your reply to me was sarcastic, I'll pretend it wasn't.)

Second, I didn't see the segment, so perhaps my critique was unwarranted.

My point was though, that if Gingrich is droning on and on about 'san francisco liberal values' blah blah blah, then to retort with something like, 'so Newt, have you started sleeping with your new assistant yet?' would be a great line.

You could sit back and chuckle while everyone got red and started sputtering.

In other words, when Gingrich (or other Republicans) act like children, treat them like children.

However, if Gingrich is commenting substantively about Pelosi's trip to Syria (and although his presentation might have been distorted and hypocritical, this sort of commentary is substantive) then I think it's important to come back with substantive criticism.

The reply can be aggressive, it can even be 'these sorts of lies and distortions by people like Gingrich are what got us into this Iraq mess in the first place...' but I think it needs to stick to the issue at hand.

Joan - - Keep hitting the right wing hard. San Franciscans don't need to take any guff from Rethuglicans like Gingrich.

You did good on the Gincrich bit, Joan. And as for Bonds, one can always hope that he puls a permanent hamstring early on and remains, forever, tragically short of Aaron. Who is also black, by the way.

biff, I wasn't being sarcastic. Thank you for your advice.

To the Bonds haters, I say: You are certainly entitled to your opinions. That's grace, one day at a time.

But after my long piece about the way letters/comments can get nasty, I have to say I really appreciate the kindness and courtesy of people reading my blog yesterday. I came home from our Opening Day debacle expecting nasty comments about my poor team from, I don't know, Dodgers fans or something. Or comments about Barry's base-running from Bonds haters. But none of that. Thank you! I appreciate your sympathy and restraint in my hour of loss. It's a long season!

Damn. I've waited for years to hear somebody call Newt what he really is. Way to go Joan. Is there any place I can go to see the video of your smackdown of that hypocritical redneck?

I enjoy seeing you on Scarborough, as long as you make sure to go out of your way to boycott FOXNews.

As for Bonds, I guess you have to be a hometown fan to overlook Bonds' drug-enhanced late-career surge. It'll especially be a bummer if he ends up with the all-time homerun record. I'm not big on asterisks, but he should be in a whole separate category for records after he started doping.

And you can see the video of my Newt moment on our Video Dog blog. Soon I'll be able to upload video here, too.

Thanks for the video-dog tip, Joan. You're getting really good at this. Pat looked irritated, but Joe seems to genuinely respect you, (as I've started to him lately, by the way). Buchannan is just pissed that the people he's used to being able to run over the top of are finally responding in ways that right wing hypocrites can't shout down or otherwise ignore. They're extremely vulnerable to this kind of response but they've grown used to not having their glaring hypocrisies pointed out on the national stage.

You've got the truth on your side so the only way they can beat you is to keep you from talking. As long as you're now in a position to be listened to, they'll have to get used to being slapped around in venues that used to be safe havens for them.

Keep the heat on. I'll definitely tune in.

...I was ambivalent in my opinion of Barry Bonds until he made the following statement:

"...I don't wanna hear y'all talk about Babe Ruth any more. I got his home runs, I got his RBIs..."

WTF?!? It's one thing to say you are as great as the Bambino - it's another to actually BELIEVE that baseball fans around the world will forget about Babe Ruth because you've put up similar stats, Mr. Bonds.

Barry has no class, Joan. And he will be forgotten by every non-Giants baseball fan in a couple years....can you say the same about the Babe?

One more thing - as a minority progressive, I'm a so sick of fellow "liberals" playing the race card everytime a public figure who isn't a WASP get scorned and vilified. Jackie Robinson was a classy, talented player who experienced racism.

Bonds? If he were whiter than John Tesh, I would still despise him and his disdain for the game and its fans.

So Joan - in the interest of TRUE equality and civil rights - I ask that you please stop sullying and demeaning the people in this country who experience true prejudice and discrimination by knee-jerk reflexively crying racism to defend your baseball idol.

{After all, you wouldn't, say, lambast anyone who criticizes Ann Coulter as being automatically misogynist, would you?}