IT’S FUN TO PLAY THE RACE CARD ON JOAN WALSH, and God knows she’s earned it. But I need, once again, to correct an improper use of the “some of my best friends” bit. As I’ve noted before:

The classic example was the white bigot who said he couldn’t be a racist because some of his best friends were black — only to have it turn out that those “friends” were his caddy and his shoeshine guy.

When some of your best friends really are black or Jewish, the import is different. People tend to lose this distinction, but I think that’s a combination of laziness and attempt to take unfair rhetorical advantage. As I said earlier, “it’s been morphed into an all-purpose way to ensure that white guys can’t bring up counterexamples when charged with racism.” That’s not fair.

Not even when it’s done to Joan Walsh.