That San Francisco Accent - Nancy Pelosi claims that by tagging her a "San Francisco liberal" Republicans are engaging in gay-baiting. Mark Shields of PBS's NewsHour sees a similar subtext. "Real men and real women are Republicans, and gays and that type are Democrats."

Whatever the GOP mean, or the Democrats infer, equating Frisco with gays always seemed like a logical falacy to me, because it confuses correlation with cause. SFO's liberalness existed before it became Mecca for homosexuals. Gays went there because it was already so liberal. Of course, things just snowballed from there, as gays from all backgrounds and walks of life took up the leftist banner of their neighbors. Someone like San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano gets elected in this majority-straight town not just because he's gay but because he's somewhere to the left of Fidel.

People like to say that that San Francisco is a place apart politically, but for my money its elected leaders tend to be a bit too looney for anyone's good.