an adult who is sexually attracted to young children.
The bruhaha of the day seems to be the lack of any genuine comedic talent of David Letterman and at first glance I figured that, as usual, his standup routine or his top ten list was just as idiotic as it was every time I have had the misfortune to see it.
I was wrong, this is worse.
Glancing through Memeorandum, I saw the first thing up was Hot Air, titled "Letterman Top Ten: Palin has a “slutty flight attendant look”; Audio: “Pathetic,” says Palin."
I figured ok, Letterman went after Palin, yet again, no big surprise there and while the slutty flight attendant comment was uncalled for, sexist and generally not amusing, I personally never expect better from Letterman so I was tempted to simply wave this off as another day and another bad joke.
Then I got to Jim Treacher's blog and understood that Letterman has stooped to a new low, even for him.
Okay. Most of the attention is going toward Letterman's "slutty flight attendant" crack, but this one is actually worse.
At first I thought "her daughter" referred to Bristol. Which would be a pretty crappy joke to make about somebody's kid, no matter how much you disagree with the parents' politics (or mere existence, apparently). But it'd still be fair game. After all, Bristol did what she did. That's not to say she should be happy about over-the-hill comedians getting cheap laughs from her mistakes, but hey, that's comedy.
The thing is, that joke isn't about Bristol: Palin brought her 14-year-old daughter Willow to the Yankees game with her.
Video below:
The text:
"One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez," he hesitates for his laughs, then says "you can see how'd that would be awkward."
Couple of points here.
First, generally, to the majority of people, children are cherished and protected and when you see a kid, thoughts of sex and pregnancy are not the first thing, or second or any, that pop right into your mind.
So, one has to wonder about David Letterman, if he looks at a 14 year-old girl and his first instinct is to joke about her getting "knocked up", then perhaps there is more than the public eye is seeing... the word pedophile springs to mind.
The second point here is about the continuation of liberals thinking it is alright to go after the children and families of politicians which we saw to the point of sickness during the election campaign when they did so with Sarah Palin's children.
The last update from Conservatives4Palin is interesting too:
UPDATE by VO: Bruce notes that the New York Times has mysteriously censored Letterman's Willow joke from their transcript of his monologue.
Note to Letterman: Get some help, when you start thinking of sex and pregnancy in relation to children, you obviously need it.
[Update] To be clear here, I don't give a rat's ass if Letterman "thought" (that is giving him much too much credit for an ability he doesn't have) he was referring to Bristol Palin (another Palin daughter), his joke was about the daughter at the game who was 14 years old.
The liberals defending Letterman, might want to share the cost of the shrink Letterman needs and join him on the couch if they think for one second there is any defense.
Reactions
In looking around the blogosphere at reactions to this, I see Dan Collins get colorful...heh. While I might not have been as blunt, his base point is sound.
I want to stress to you scum-sucking morons that I don’t care whether Letterman and his writers thought he was addressing the presence at the Yankees game of Bristol Palin or Willow Palin. Either way, his “joke” was a sick and assaultive act directed at a young woman who has done nothing to merit such treatment on national television, you gutter-dwelling hobgoblins of putrescence.
The man definitely has a way with words...
Now, to give credit where it is due, not all liberals are jumping on the "defend David Letterman" bandwagon as evidenced by Balloon Juice writer John Cole, who thinks Letterman should be ashamed of himself:
And I’m not trying to sound like some politically correct scold, and I have no problem with comedians being comedians. There are lots of reasons to dislike Sarah Palin, there are lots of reasons to not be impressed with her leadership, her beliefs, or, well, anything about her, but when you start with the “slutty” crap, or are making jokes about her daughter getting “knocked up,” you’ve crossed a line. I have no problem attacking Palin for her idiotic proposals and all the stupid things she has said, but this just is the kind of nonsense that is no good for anyone.
Maybe I’m over-reacting, and I know I’m not always perfect, but I’m really losing my patience and tolerance for this kind of stuff. There was no place for this kind of stuff with Hillary and Chelsea, there is no room for it with Michelle and their kids, and the same standard should apply for Sarah Palin and her kids. Hell, it should apply to all women.
Kudos to Cole.
More reactions
While reading through the reactions around the web, I found another liberal, one who obviously dislikes Palin but admits this type of thing is "tasteless and misogynist."
No More Mister Nice Blog takes on one of those trying to defend Letterman:
*(UPDATE: My error -- Palin was joined on the trip by one of her daughters -- not Bristol, but Willow, who's never been pregnant and who's 14. Wrong. Very wrong. Way, way over the line. Roy Edroso's point that "the only way the joke makes sense" is as a reference to Bristol doesn't wash -- it might have if Bristol had been with the governor, or the whole family, or none of her daughters. But that wasn't the case.)I might add the basic reason on that one for refusing to defend Letterman is because the writer doesn't want liberals to give Palin "moral high ground."
The Moderate Voice, who these days is more left of center asks:
Of course politics is about making jokes and politicians need to have thick skins. But what happened to families being off limits? Can you imagine if someone made a similar joke about the daughter of a Democratic politician?
For the record: Not a fan of Obama here, but yes, if someone made this type of joke about his little girls, I would be one of the first on the bandwagon suggesting the pervert get help.
More coming as I find them.
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