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Letterman’s jokes about Palin and her daughter causing an uproar.

Michelle Malkin

Allah Pundit

More Allah Pundit

James Joyner:

Way over the line. Even if the butt of the jokes was Alex Rodriguez. Kids are off limits. Period. Whether it’s Amy Carter, Chelsea Clinton, or the Obama girls, the extent of the commentary permissible is how cute, sweet, adorable, precious, and clever they are. ( If they aren’t cute, you’re not allowed to say so. If you think they’re hot now that they’re grown up, I suppose that’s fine.)

Adult children of politicians who have become public figures by virtue of going into politics themselves or actively campaigning on the issues, like Mary Cheney?  Fair game.  The Bush girls off at college?  Borderline.   Minor children?  See above.

That said, I stop well short of going where same in the blogosphere have gone.  Letterman’s a decent fellow. He’s not a pervert. He’s been doing monologues for a national television audience for thirty years and has a very solid reputation as a professional and as a human being.  It was just a bad joke that crossed a line.  But he should apologize and show a little better editorial judgment from now on.

Victor Davis Hanson:

David Letterman, who has become ever more creepy in his dotage, on both counts proved a boor — and receives only silence? (Personally, I admire flight attendants a great deal: They put up with a great deal from jet lag to obnoxious passengers, and somehow remain polite and hard-working — and with a modest and professional look.)

Conor Friedersdorf

John Cole:

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.

Moe Lane

Letterman comments:

Michelle Malkin on response

Allah Pundit:

Don’t you see? He’d never condone statutorily raping a girl who’s underage. All he meant to do was goof on the idea that Palin’s eldest daughter, a single mother with a baby, is a whore. Everything cool now? Let’s move on.

UPDATE: More Hanson

Jason Zengerle at TNR on Hanson

Michelle Malkin

Allah Pundit

UPDATE #2: Erin Manning

UPDATE #3: Hanson responds to Zengerle:

First, Zengerle cannot read. I did not write that Letterman does not generically attack others; rather that in this particular context he would not have used such grotesque references to the children of iconic liberals: “But the reason he picked the Palins, and not the Obamas, Gores, Bidens, or Kerrys, was precisely because he knew it would not equate to his “last show.”

Letterman would never make a joke about an underage daughter of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry, or Al Gore having sex with Alex Rodriguez or Eliot Spitzer. Sorry, he would not. Any idiot knows that.

Letterman offered no apology, but more of his usual postmodern, I’m goofy; feel sorry for me; “got the wrong daughter;” I’m Dave after all junk. The fact remains that in three separate references he slurred the female governor of Alaska and her 14-year-old daughter on a recent visit to his New York. And when he tried to contextualize it, all he did was make it worse by suggesting that he meant instead Governor Palin’s 18-year-old daughter, who recently delivered an out-of-wedlock child.

Zengerle responds to Hanson

Even if she does think Letterman was making inappropriate jokes about her 14-year-old daughter, how does it help her 14-year-old daughter to continue to fan the flames this controversy and just call more attention to the jokes? If I was a 14-year-old girl, I sure as hell wouldn’t want my mother going on national TV to keep on talking about my hypothetical statutory rape. Contrast Palin’s behavior, for instance, with that of Bill Clinton’s after Rush Limbaugh and John McCain made nasty jokes about the attractiveness (or lack thereof) of his teenage daughter Chelsea. Clinton was reportedly furious about the jokes, as any father would be, but he didn’t make a public spectacle of his anger or try to score political points from the episode. In fact, so far as I can tell, he (and the White House) refused to make any public comment on Limbaugh and McCain’s jokes–presumably because doing so would make things even worse for Chelsea. Bill Clinton’s name isn’t exactly synonymous with family values, but, on this one, I think Palin could definitely stand to follow his example.

UPDATE #4: John Cole

UPDATE #5: Michelle Cottle

Margaret Carlson in Daily Beast

UPDATE #6: James Wolcott

Patrick Edaburn in Moderate Voice

Meghan McCain

UPDATE #7: Malkin

Michael Russnow in HuffPo

UPDATE #8: Sean Scallon in TAC:

That’s why I don’t think this “dispute” over a dirty joke Letterman told about Palin’s family just “happened.” It was something that fell into Team Palin’s lap and they exploited it for full effect. The strategy is to make Palin a victim of someone who is part of the media’s elite, i.e., Letterman, right from his New York City studio, and then claim martyr status for her and what she supposedly represents, i.e., “the base.”

Other comedians have told jokes about Palin’s family and have gotten away with it, but this has more to do with timing. As governor of Alaska, she faces daunting logistical challenges in running for president, the first of which is the distance between the state and the media centers of the country. She had been out of the news cycle for the past seven months and her recent trip out east was designed to put her back into the spotlight. Indeed, Letterman’s joke was a godsend for her. Before he shot off his mouth, Palin was being dismissed in many GOP circles in Washington and was in fact accused of plagiarizing Newt Gingrich in a speech (if such as thing is even possible).

Then Letterman comes along with his crude joke and all of that is swept aside and Palin the Martyr takes center stage, vicitimized by the cruel and snarky eastern media elites. Ranks begin to close. Letterman becomes a target and is attacked by the whole party. He eventually is made to apologize but instead of doing so right away, he waits, allowing Palin to soak up as much of the spotlight as possible. Thus Letterman allows himself to be used to further Palin’s prospects and it’s too late to do anything about it.