Capitol Hill Blue Forums Capitol Hill Blue Opinions CHB Columnists Banging Sarah Palin's daughters

It would be suicide in this instance to say that Alex Rodrigques "knocked up" a 14 year old during the 7th inning.

It's never gotten this raw with The Palins.

How many times did he reference his daughters during the nomination campaign and the general campaign? How many favorable stories were done on his daughters? Were any of us unaware of his daughters and their cutetability factor? He was able to parlay them into campaign capital without as much exposure during the latter part of his campaign. Good for him. They were a significant part of his campaign success. His daughters are no more deserving of smears by talk radio hosts and television personalities, than are Sarah Palin's daughters. It's dirty.
Yours,
Issodhos

That was not my question, Rick.
Yours,
Issodhos

The personal and sexual pecadillos of America'a "leading" families has been grist for late night talk show humor since at least Johnny Carson's days. The Letterman jokes were nothing new.

Tastelessness has been a hallmark of most, if not all, of this humor. And whether the kids are or are not in the public eye hasn't mattered a great deal. Some of the jokes about Amy Carter, while not sexual as far as I recall, were at least as cruel as this one about poor, abused Willow Palin.

So putting this whole thing in context makes it absolutely laughable that there is any fuss at all.

That said, the Palin's approach to sexuality simply invites jokes about them, their family, their friends, and their political ilk.

We likely will never know whether the joke writers cared, much less bothered to check, which daughter was in NYC with her majesty the governor, and therefore likely never will know which daughter the joke writer had in mind when the joke was penned. While clearly making a joke of the whole thing, my reading of Letterman's face (usually a good window into his real thoughts) is that he was surprised that the daughter he assumed the joke to be about was not the daughter who actually was in the City. Don't think he meant to tell a joke about a 14-year old girl.

But the bottom line is, if her majesty the Governor doesn't want jokes told about her children, regardless of their ages, she should keep them out of the public eye. The fault lies with mommy, her majesty the governor, who exposed Willow to the limelight.

It was tasteless and ugly humor, really, just that simple. Governor Palin offers a large enough target without bringing the kids into it. Because the young lady is publicly trying to convince other girls not to make the same mistake she did does not automatically make her a target or fair game for the late night humor mill. As issodos implies, the Democratic Smear Machine is as vicious as they come.

Your comment about the DMS is interesting. Would like to see the citations. But the suggestion that the DMS is feeding Letterman his jokes is simply laughable.

A couple of notes: Yes, Amy Carter and Chelsea Clinton were hit with truly ugly jokes.

As everyone's mama used to say, two wrongs don't make a right. It was wrong then; it was wrong in this case. What Letterman meant to say, or thought he was saying, about whom, does not matter. (What matters is what he said (a joke about a young woman at a baseball game), and where he said it, which was on national TV.)

He intentionally or inadvertently made a joke about a 14-year-old girl, and that was wrong. He owed an apology - primarily to the young girl, and only secondarily to her parents. He should have made it, as gracefully as possible, and shut the hell up. His writers should have paid attention to which daughter was at the ballgame.

I have no time for Sarah Palin but if it had happened to my minor kid, I'd have yelped too. I'm not saying she was in the right - I haven't listened to it and don't intend to - but she has a valid reason to be publicly irked.

I think there is also quite a bit of insensitivity in using a title of "Banging Sarah Palin's daughters" for the CHB article:

Sarah Palin also has an 8 year old daughter, Piper, who is now being included. Ick...

Thanks, Pondering_It_All. I found the title disturbing at best.

She's guilty of taking her kid to a ballgame?!