Baytzim

Asshattery is not a zero-sum game

2009 June 16 post from swirsky

Our friends at Popehat.com write:

So David Letterman has issued a more extensive and seemingly less qualified apology for telling a joke that — taken most charitably — suggested that Sarah Palin’s 18-year-old daughter Bristol is a slut. That’s a good thing. He ought to apologize. Bristol Palin had a child out of wedlock. So did David Letterman. For David Letterman to suggest that she’s a slut because she had a child out of wedlock makes him a hypocritical asshat. Moreover, it’s uncouth to attack the children of politicians to make a joke or score political points, even if they make mistakes in their private lives. (Attacking them for public actions as adults is perfectly fair game, of course. It’s particularly obnoxious to attack them with racist or sexist tropes.

I say that even though I absolutely abhor Sarah Palin.

There have been some unqualified condemnations of Letterman from the Left. But there’s also been a strong current of minimizing his behavior on the grounds that the Right’s outrage is manufactured for political effect, or that the Right is exaggerating what Letterman said, or that the Right is hypocritical because figures on the Right have attacked the daughters of Democratic politicians (as both Limbaugh and McCain did with Chelsea Clinton, for example).

Read the whole thing here

Comments

at 8:58 a.m. on June 16, 2009, voodoo says...

Kudos to Dave for stepping up and doing the right thing on this... bad joke to begin with that spiraled out of control... ALL children of public figures should be judged on their own merits, not by their parents ideologies or actions.

at 10:23 a.m. on June 16, 2009, swirsky says...

Ok! I'll judge her by her own merits! Here was a girl who grew up with every possible resource at her disposal, well educated, with bright parents. And she got KNOCKED UP at age 17. She decided to do interviews with People Magazine http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20280071,00.html and that makes her a public figure.

This is NOT political. I can't stand Obama. But for Sarah Palin to suggest that David Letterman was making jokes about "child rape" (her words) is disingenuous.

at 11:52 a.m. on June 16, 2009, voodoo says...

To be fair to the criticisms, her older daughter was NOT at the game... her 14yr. old daughter was. I can empathize with her sensitivity on that issue. Her oldest daughter was most of a continent away in Alaska. If Dave meant her oldest daughter he should fire his fact checkers because it was the younger daughter (14) at the game. I think the oldest daughter is fair game for the teen pregnancy, but insinuating she screwed A-Rod, or is a whore because she got pregnant at 17 is a bit much in my opinion. Not too many generations ago, women much younger than 17 got married and had kids which was considered normal.

at 11:58 a.m. on June 16, 2009, swirsky says...

I think it was a mistake for Palin to name her daughter Swallow.

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