Sarah Palin has responded to David Letterman’s response to the uproar over his jokes about Sarah and Bristol Palin on Monday night’s show. Despite the smears being spread about him by right wing bloggers, David Letterman never told a joke involving either Willow Palin or rape . His jokes on Monday were no different than the jokes that he has told in the past and jokes that have been frequently told by other late night comics including Jay Leno, Conan O’Brian, Jimmy Kimmel and Craig Ferguson. In his response, Letterman pointed out that he agrees with Sarah Palin that jokes about a 14 year old would be inappropriate, along with pointing that he has not done this. Letterman also invited Sarah and Todd Palin onto his show.
Sarah Palin has responded to the invitation:
“The Palins have no intention of providing a rating’s boost for David Letterman by appearing on his show. Plus, it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman.”
It is curious that Sarah Palin, despite her outrage in recent comments, is the one who is making a tasteless quip at the expense of Willow. Of course it is not unusual for Palin to take advantage of her children for publicity.
Just to keep things straight, David Letterman has not made any jokes about Willow Palin. It is the right wing blogs who dragged Willow into this, and now Sarah Palin has joined them by making such a joke about Willow. In doing so, Palin shows she is both not above taking advantage of her daughter to make a political point and that she is not above joining in with right wing smear campaigns. Just as it is wrong to make jokes about a 14 year old child, it is wrong to spread false accusations that David Letterman has done this.
I suspect that sooner or later Palin will appear on Late Night with David Letterman, just as John McCain did following his feud with Letterman last fall. As a politician such publicity will probably prove to be too much to resist. Besides, as Letterman has jokingly pointed out, “The road to the White House goes through me.”
On the other hand, perhaps Palin will not do what other politicians would do in such a situation. Palin remains unique in staying away from the Sunday morning talk shows following her disastrous attempts to answer questions in interviews during the 2008 campaign. Most likely Letterman would keep such an appearance light, but Palin still might be afraid of being embarrassed should Letterman throw her any questions about actual policy matters.
Update: Jason Zengerle says essentially the same thing as I said above. (He’s responding to Victor Davis Hanson as well as Sarah Palin’s argument but it is essentially the same argument we’ve heard multiple times from the right):
I know logic isn’t VDH’s strong suit, but is it really so hard to believe that the joke Letterman was making about a Palin daughter getting “knocked up” was about the Palin daughter who, you know, got knocked up? And when you consider that said daughter has decided to make herself a poster- (and cover-) girl for teen abstinence, then, by stepping into the media spotlight, she’s exposed herself to the jokes (funny or not) of late night comics.
As for Palin, her response is just gross. Responding to Letterman’s invitation to appear on his show, this is what a Palin spokesman said:
The Palins have no intention of providing a rating’s boost for David Letterman by appearing on his show. Plus, it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman.
The first part about not wanting to boost Letterman’s ratings is fair and I can’t blame her. But isn’t the second part just adding insult to the original injury Palin claims Willow suffered at Letterman’s hands? It’s hard to complain about someone making jokes about having sex or raping your 14-year-old daughter when you then go on to make the same joke yourself.
P.S. VDH says Letterman would never make jokes about the offspring of the Obamas, Kerrys, Bidens, or Gores. Not true.
Update 2: So far on Thursday’s show Letterman has commented on problems from shooting his mouth off but says everything is ok with Sarah Palin. He says that Sarah Palin called and invited him to go hunting. He usually tapes his Friday shows on Monday after the actual Monday show so we probably won’t hear anything more this week, at least in response to events from later in the week. It is possible that he included more jokes about Palin when originally taping the show on Monday.
Update 3: Sarah Palin Continues To Drag Daughter Through Mud For Political Gain
