Hondo, who had been making steady progress on his financial problems in recent days, wiped out yesterday with the Metamucils, Padres, A’s and Angels to raise the runaway deficit to a robust 1,180 brinkmans.

Tonight, Mr. Aitch will show some National pride by going with Detwiler over Stauffer – 10 units on Washington.

-$

Newsweek (that thing apparently is still around) declares on this week’s cover that Obama is the “First Gay President.” How ‘bout that for a feather in his fedora! Factor in Barack winning the West Virginia Democratic primary last week by 18 points over the venerable Keith Judd — who’s serving time in a Texas prison for extortion — and it looks like everything is coming together beautifully for his reelection bid.

hondo@nypost.com