In The Blogs

Letterman Owes Palin a Thank-You

| Fri Jun. 12, 2009 8:09 AM PDT

Whether David Letterman owes an apology to Sarah Palin for joking about her daughter or not, he sure should send her and her conservative comrades one big thank-you.

The Letterman-Palin tussle has been under way since the late-night comic cracked that Palin's daughter got "knocked up" by A-Rod on a recent trip to New York City. He also said that Palin had to keep her daughter away from Elliot Spitzer. Since then, conservatives have been demanding Letterman's head. Todd Palin accused him of joking about rape. Michelle Malkin has branded Letterman a misogynist and called for CBS to get him a therapist. Team Sarah, a conservative outfit that fancies Palin, has pushed for boycotting Letterman's advertisers. ("The continual presence of personal attacks on both Governor Sarah Palin and her family indicates that she remains a threat to the liberal political establishment," huffed Team Sarah cofounder Jane Abraham.) And on Friday morning's Today Show, Sarah Palin said Letterman ought to apologize to young women across the country. (Letterman offered a jokey explanation, not an apology, after the Palins first complained.)

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But Palin and Letterman are helping each other. Earlier this week, Palin was in the news for not being invited to a GOP fundraiser. She also made headlines for not being named one of the GOP's leaders in a USA Today/Gallup poll. How's that for lousy press? Now she's getting attention as a defender of young women and the victim of liberal elitism. And taking on Letterman is a lot easier than talking about health care policy.

But Letterman got the better deal. These days he likely cares about one thing and one thing alone: beating Conan. Last week, Conan O'Brien took over The Tonight Show at NBC, which once spurned Letterman for this late-night throne. Surely, Letterman must relish the prospect of grinding O'Brien into the ratings dust. And a brawl with Palin can only help when it comes to ratings. Palin is doing Letterman a big favor by keeping the story alive--and by doing so on an NBC show. Folks in TV-land will now have to tune in for another Letterman riposte. Surely, the comic-host can milk his smackdown with Palin for another show or two...or three.

Meanwhile, what's Conan O'Brien to do? Start a feud with Rosie or Donald? Nah, too retro. Perhaps Michelle Obama ought to watch out.

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David Corn is Mother Jones' Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He's also on Twitter.

Comments

Sarah Palin a threat to the

Submitted by Another voice in the wilderness (not verified) on Fri Jun. 12, 2009 8:50 AM PDT.

Sarah Palin a threat to the left? Give me a break, you'd have to have brains and a good idea to be a threat to the left. The woman is stupid (yes, I said stupid, as in not intelligent, can't string together English words into a coherent sentence let alone a coherent thought, clueless) and, IMHO, not really all that attractive. She gets harped on by the left because she is a good example of most of the current, self-identified Republicans and an object of ridicule. She brings it on herself and has no one else to blame.

Boo Hoo

Submitted by Patriot4Peace on Fri Jun. 12, 2009 8:55 AM PDT.

Poor Sarah Palin the aging beauty queen was sooooo close to becoming a somebody when the party of family values found itself trying to defend her pregnant unmarried daughter. Then after making such a huge fuss over John Edward's $400 haircut had to find a way to explain the expenditures that piled up when the Wasilla Hillbilly got within a ten mile radius of a Nieman Marcus.

Then they had to try to find a way to explain why their choice for vice couldn't answer any questions from the press without the press agreeing to a script.

Now she wants to look hurt and offended because a late night comedian made her family the butt of a not so good joke? She's lucky to be back in the relative obscurity of Alaskan politics, what would she be enduring today in the way of media scrutiny if she continued to give vapid and generalized answers to reporter's questions?

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. Thomas Jefferson 6/11/1807

Jefferson quote ...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat Jun. 13, 2009 12:26 AM PDT.

Great quote from TJ ... can you give us a source? What newspaper(s) was he referring to, and over what issues?

Just google Thomas Jefferson Scandal

Submitted by Patriot4Peace on Tue Jun. 16, 2009 12:34 PM PDT.

http://www.monticello.org/plantation/hemingscontro/hemings-jefferson_con...

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. Thomas Jefferson 6/11/1807

Letterman Nailin Palin

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri Jun. 12, 2009 2:11 PM PDT.

I'm not a GOP Hater, nor a Dem Lover, but LMan should thank someone for being so kind to him. I wouldn't wish to compare the Palin's to Hillbillies. I'm not that mean minded, but LMan is in his element! Unless the "Loaded for Bear" gal can "walk on water", LMan has her in his "cross-hairs"!

Surely McCain picked her for a purpose? Hail Mary, help me in this time of knead! Face it! He was desperate! He was close enough to smell the "air freshener" in the West Wing. It didn't work. Palin Who? That was then, this is now! EOD!

All this is a free gift to LMan and "one is not supposed to look a Gift Horse in the mouth" regardless of how big it is! About the size of, well maybe the 2nd largest state or the first depending if one chooses to overlook Wyoming! Yes! I know! But we are talking mouths here! Otherwise I would have to mention RL*a*r*d. If His a*s was a Naval Base, it could berth every Naval vessel in the world!

Thank You

Palin-Letterman

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri Jun. 12, 2009 4:05 PM PDT.

Ordinarily, I consider Sarah Palin a dangerous joke; however, I think she is dead-on in this case. I heard Letterman's "apology", and I didn't buy the logic. Since Willow, the younger daughter, was the only one with the Palins, how could the A-Rod joke apply to any but her? I think Dave was doing a little c-y-a by saying he was talking about Bristol. Agreed, the Palins are not the classiest people around, but then neither is Dave. IMHO he should have given a sincere apology. I still remember the "jokes" about the teen-age Chelsea Clinton. Some of this stuff just aint funny

I agree with the thinking

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat Jun. 13, 2009 7:53 AM PDT.

I agree with the thinking that Palin should just take whatever she gets from the media (including entertainers). After all they carved up Bush (elder and jr.), McCain, Clinton (Bill and Hillary), Gore, Quayle, Reagan, etc. If they had any guts they'd give equal time to Obama, but I think they're afraid of being labeled as racist. Maybe that will change in time though. It just comes with the territory. (personally I could do without the hate that seems to be around for the last few years...this 'if you disagree with me you must be STUPID' mentality. Maybe Palin isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but Obama shoved his foot in his mouth several times, in fact it's the rare public figure who doesn't. Intelligence (unfortunately) has nothing to do with politics anymore, it's about IMAGE).
However, spouses and family, especially non-adult children, should be off-limits. Once they strike out on their own (Hillary, Nancy Reagan) they're fair game. Same goes for children; if Chelsea Clinton enters politics she'll be on the receiving end. But underage children, and spouses who do no more than stand by and smile should be left alone.

Ha !!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri Jun. 12, 2009 11:05 PM PDT.

See how it goes when you have a just say no to choice (+condoms and normal birthcontrol) anti-pregnancy campainger... It works real well...esp. with teenagers!!

Letterman speaks out (-albeit caustically) for us ALL !!

Sure, because children

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat Jun. 13, 2009 7:58 AM PDT.

Sure, because children raised in an environment of 'choice' NEVER get pregnant. The epidemic of children having children comes from parents not teaching responsibility. Our whole society lives to blame others for our own problems. It has nothing to do with politics. Religious 'wait for marriage', or single parent 'embrace your sexuality' parents all have one thing in common: if they don't teach their children to be responsible, they'll grow up to be irresponsible.

Excuse me, but I do believe

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun Jun. 14, 2009 3:20 PM PDT.

tagged as:

solution

Excuse me, but I do believe that Sarah Palin was one that did profess to edcucating and advocating abstinence. I think Sarah's daugter was, or I thought, taught
the consequences of her having sex before marriage.?? Sarah Palin obviously
is not in touch with reality.

How is life in Never Never Land?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun Jun. 14, 2009 4:09 PM PDT.

Yeah, right. Condoms never break and women always remember to take their "pill" and every woman who ever attended a Sex Ed class or went to Planned Parenthood or talked with their doctor or had "the talk" with their mom or dad, never, ever, ever got pregnant without really wanting and trying to.

If you believe that, you must also believe in Prince Charming and the White Knight and Happily Ever After and everyone who marries for LOVE never, ever gets divorced and........

You must be living in a fairy tale world......

Funny, I've never heard

Submitted by DaveD (not verified) on Mon Jun. 15, 2009 5:35 AM PDT.

Funny, I've *never* heard anyone claim that condoms are 100% effective. But the conservative right is constantly claiming that abstinence is the only means that is 100% effective. Based on *that* belief, they oppose any other means as leading to promiscuity.

Get Real

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun Jun. 14, 2009 4:03 PM PDT.

"The epidemic of children having children comes from parents not teaching responsibility."???

That's funny. I thought the "epidemic" of children having children came from a boy and a girl responding to their biological urges and thinking that they are "in love" with each other and acting on those impulses without stopping to think what mommy & daddy might have taught them or what the Sex Ed class in school might have taught them or, for that matter, what TV, movies, and Jamie Lynn Spears might have taught them. Oh, that's right, movies, like the big hit, "Juno" teaches that it's cool for a teen girl to be pregnant and so did Spears and that teen "pregnancy club up in Mass.

Give me a break! This stuff has been going on forever. And, it doesn't make a teen "irresponsible" to become pregnant when they are unmarried, any more than it makes an adult woman "irresponsible" to become pregnant when she is unmarried. Many a grown man and woman living today was born to a teen mom and is doing just fine.

By the way, if you consider 18 year olds (the age of Bristol Palin) to be a child, then "children" are voting, signing up to go to war, getting married, getting jobs, moving away from their parents, traveling to foreign countries alone, etc., etc.

Palin-Letterman

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat Jun. 13, 2009 12:23 AM PDT.

The Right Wing is so desperate for issues that resonate, issues that somehow will get them back into the mainstream, that they're grabbing at anything. Palin has blown this up as much as she can, even to the disadvantage (and embarassment) of her own children. Rush is criticizing people who exercise. Sanford is refusing money that would help poor children in South Carolina get a better education, and Rick Perry is about to secede from the Union. Bobby Jindal is still wondering what went wrong with his speech. Give me a break.

Remember poor John Wayne Bobbit? Todd Pailn should be afraid. Very, very afraid. Under no circumstances should the Letterman accept The Shark's invitation to go hunting with her.

Isn't this part of the I'm

Submitted by edbrylovesaguy on Sat Jun. 13, 2009 9:01 PM PDT.

Isn't this part of the I'm hated because I'm conservative bullshit? So why pretend it's about women?
There is a lovely woman not far from Dave in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. Her name is Gurumayi Chidvilasananda.
I would really rather talk about her but I guess that wouldn't make Dave's ratings soar not get the GOP its badly needed pity.