John McCain joins the right’s anti-Dave jihad:
“I don’t understand why Letterman would say that about a young woman… They deserve some kind of protection from being the butt of late-night hosts.”
Of course remember what he said about Chelsea Clinton in 1998:
“Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father.”
For the record, I agree that it’s better not to make jokes about the children of politicians. Also for the record: Dave apologized for his joke, McCain never did apologized to Bill Clinton, though not to Chelsea, Reno, or Hillary.
JMonkey
Not to be pedantic — I have very, very little respect for McCain — but he apparently did apologize … to her father. No record that he apologized to Janet Reno or Chelsea Clinton.
Comrade Stuck
In an un-related note McCain congratulated Alexander Graham Bell for his recent invention.
brent
Dave apologized for his joke, McCain never did.
Its worse than that. McCain did in fact apologize… to Bill Clinton. Not to Chelsea. Not to Hillary and not to Reno. Essentially he apologized to the head of household for publicly diminishing the value of his property.
Silver
I’m shocked that a guy who would dump his crippled wife in favor of a young broad with family money would make a tasteless joke and then condemn others for doing the same.
Shocked, I tell you…
Jennifer
I loved Dave’s “apology”. He apologized for the remarks about Palin’s daughter, while making clear they were jokes about her adult daughter, Bristol, NOT her 14-year-old daughter Willow…and then when he got to the joke about Palin going shopping at Bloomingdale’s for cosmetics to update her slutty flight-attendant look, said, “I like that joke” and didn’t apologize.
Heh.
asiangrrlMN
Here is a nice top ten list from Shannyn Moore (a prominent progressive blogger in Alaska) on why Palin’s outrage is misplaced and too late:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shannyn-moore/top-10-reasons-sarah-pali_b_215468.html
El Tiburon
For the record, John McCain is a long-standing Congressman and twice ran for President.
Dave Letterman, on the other hand, IS A FUCKING COMEDIAN ON THE TEE-VEE.
Why are we even having this debate?
The two are NOT equal.
Stop equating the two.
arguingwithsignposts
When will the media just STFU about this manufactured controversy? There is real shit going on in this world – iran, n.korea, health care, economy, etc. enough that we don’t need this b.s. about some back-water governor and her faux outrage (“exclusive” interview on NBC) blocking the airwaves.
Grow up, people. sheesh!
Johnny B. Guud
OT—-speaking of a–holes…..K-Lo is stepping down as editor of NRO….
Brachiator
The GOP is back on message. The idea is to always keep up an attack, to never yield or concede a point, to try to always stay in the news, to always have pundits talking about you, bloggers blogging about you, and the base on your side.
The GOP gets bonus points for taking advantage of gaps in the news cycle to push a story that distracts from GOP failure and allows false equivalencies between “liberal comics” and Rush Limbaugh.
Plus there isn’t much going on in the world now that American Idol has selected its winner (the average Joe doesn’t give a rip about the election in Iran, and can’t pay much attention until Israel starts bombing).
cleek
who the fuck gives a shit about Sarah Dumbass Palin ?
AhabTRuler
@asiangrrlMN: It’s a pretty good response, aside from the forced cutesiness of responding with a top 10 list (can we just let them die? Please??).
Calouste
John McCain clearly thinks that “those without sin” is a limitation only for the first stone to be thrown.
Ash Can
Not that I actually care about this load of bull — all it is, really, is the collision of a couple of overinflated egos — but given the way Letterman tore McCain a new one the last time McCain dissed him, isn’t McCain kind of asking for it by butting in here?
Jim
When McCain apologizes to the country for Sarah Palin, and for pretty much everything else about his despicable, low-road campaign, I’ll be willing to listen to him criticize Letterman. Well, not willing to listen, but a little less annoyed.
AhabTRuler
@Calouste:
To be fair, once you’ve started throwing, what’s the incentive to stop? You can’t un-shit the bed.
DougJ
I think he did it just right.
jrg
If only Dave had called Bristol a trollop or a c*nt, everything would have been fine.
arguingwithsignposts
@Jim:
Amen.
Oh, great. So she’s also going to be publishing a book that has shite for a foundation. Wonderful.
schrodinger's cat
Why do we care what John McCain thinks, didn’t he lose the election? In fact why does the media keep giving the Republicans a bigger platform, to spout all their nonsense from? As of this Sunday I have stopped watching the morning shows to preserve my sanity.
asiangrrlMN
@AhabTRuler: Yes, that is true. However, in this case, I think a Top Ten List was apt. In general, however, they can bite me.
Adrienne
I gotta respectfully disagree on this one. When the children are young, yes, they should be exempt from any and all chiding by pundits, politicians, or comedians.
However, once those children are adults, whom the politician parent in question use as pawns to further their agenda or who use their parents’ quasi-celebrity to come out for political causes they become fair game.
Examples: 1. Chelsea Clinton in 1998 = keep her name out of your mouth. Chelsea Clinton in 2008 = fair game. 2. Willow Palin in 2009 = keep her name out of your mouth. Bristol Palin in 2009 = She was on the cover of People, she’s whoring herself out for “abstinence”, she dumb as a box of rocks and is all over t.v./print in a flame war with her baby-daddy. She is SO fair game.
Surreal American
@Johnny B. Guud:
NRO had an online editor???
Back on topic: My guess is that McCain himself is still nursing a grudge against Letterman going back to the 2008 campaign.
Brachiator
@Brachiator:
It gets complicated when a politician makes his or her children a campaign prop.
It gets further complicated when the older Palin daughter enters the public sphere with her “Abstinence Works Sorta Kinda” World Tour.
Minor children should absolutely be protected.
I also note that the worst conservative pundits are using Letterman’s remarks as an opportunity to go after the Obama family, using the despicable feint, “You wouldn’t be able to say blah blah blah about the Obamas because the librul media would stop you.”
(The system oddly wouldn’t let me edit my previous post)
DougJ
True. But I’d still rather stay away from it,
K
In fairness, McCain said they deserve protection from late night hosts, not misogynistic douchebag senators.
MikeJ
You would think that he would have learned his lesson last time he messed with Dave.
I’d guess the whole point of this is trying to make comedians afraid to make fun of republicans. Of course they believe it’s all right to say anything about Democrats because you can always follow it with, “can’t you take a joke?”
Bill E Pilgrim
What’s funny about this one is that they think they can make political points attacking Letterman because he’s some sort of Democratic or Liberal figure, or something.
Hate to break it to them, but he’s a comedian. That’s all. Frat houses would seem to be his “constituency” if you were really pressed to name one, and I can’t imagine anything outside of this latest Wingnut faux outrage episode that would ever press you to do so.
Comrade Kevin
Did McCain speak with his advisor, Joe the Plumber, about this before he made his statement?
Bill E Pilgrim
If Democratic strategists somehow got to decide who was front and center speaking for Republicans right now, they couldn’t do better than fielding John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Rush Limbaugh.
Adrienne
@DougJ:
I’m sorry but when that child makes themselves into a political entity by stepping into the spotlight, as an ADULT, they become fair game. Bristol qualifies as fair game. She’s 18 or 19 y/o, giving interviews, speeches, appearing on the cover of People, etc. If she didn’t want the spotlight noone was forcing her into it – unless of course her mother was but if so she forfeits all right to be outraged when her daughter becomes fodder for late night comedians. They can’t have it both ways.
Paul L.
I heard the Dave’s”apology” and that is a flatout lie. Just like your original “McCain never did” [apologize].
Because a woman getting knock up in her last teens is a whore?
Like Obama’s mother?
And if you object to that:
“It’s a joke. That’s all it’s suppose to be, That’s what this is”
MikeJ
The wingnuts will never accept any apology, they simply want outrage, outrage, outrage. There’s no need to pay any attention to them, on this or any other subject.
Jennifer
@Paul L.: Calm down, Mary.
If nothing else, this episode proves that there are a lot of people who are too thin-skinned to be in politics. Sarah Palin is one of them.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Paul L.: Because a woman getting knock up in her last teens is a whore?
That blood-flecked foam really makes the keys slippery, dunnit.
DoucheBaggins
Does it make me a bad person if I think that McCain’s joke was actually really fucking funny?
It does?
mmmkay.
Dusty
If Sarah Palin had stuck to “Hey, stop saying mean things about my kids,” she’d have been fine. But suggesting that David Letterman might be some kind of pervert or pedophile and trying to use an admittedly tasteless but tremendously unoriginal joke to launch a culture war is overplaying her hand.
Palin’s got astonishingly bad political instincts. Some day, she may want to use Letterman’s platform to reach moderates; burning this bridge now for so little political gain just seems foolish.
MikeJ
I think paul is upset that anybody would imply that a Palin would get preggers via s.e.x. rather than the holy spirit descending like a dove to bless her hoo-ha.
JGabriel
I just wanted to say: This is my favorite category.
.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
@Paul L.:
Nice job, DougJ – you broke Paul L. Now who are we going to rely on for half-witted non sequiturs and nonsensical false equivalencies?
jenniebee
@DougJ:
How about we just don’t make a joke where there isn’t a joke to be made about them personally? Call it the Jenna/Not Jenna standard. Not Jenna pretty much went to school and more or less behaved herself and posed for one magazine cover in a formal gown and didn’t stick her tongue out at the cameras from behind the windows of the Presidential limo and pretty much didn’t give comedians anything to work with. Jenna? Totally did.
So “What Would Jenna Drink?” – completely within limits. Jokes about Not Jenna? “Ha ha ha, she went to like Yale! That is so funny! And, um, yeah, she went to like, some parties, I think – ooh ooh ooh – she got caught drinking underage once!” There just isn’t much material to work with.
Chelsea? The only material anybody could ever come up with was to pick on her looks, which isn’t funny, it’s just shabby (and the last laugh’s on them, have you seen her lately?) Malia and Sascha? If Letterman wanted to make jokes about eight year olds being impatient about getting the puppies that have been promised them, he wouldn’t be on Late Night, he’d be on The Half Hour News Hour.
But rules about how Presidential families are off limits? Puh-lease. I’ve got this great one about Bush 1’s youngest, Niel, and how he, tee hee, put together all these, chortle, savings and loans scams, haha, and then his daddy used taxpayer money to bail out the savings and loans his son ripped off, snort, and… ha he ha, no, I can’t go on, it’s too much…
Jim
@Adrienne:
I see Bristol Palin as a victim. She made a mistake most of make at that age. The fact that her mother’s a soulless opportunist shouldn’t fall on her.
My two cents.
Zifnab
@DougJ: Why? Palin was practically hiding behind her daughters for part of the campaign. If you hold up your kid as a human shield, then shed big crocodile tears on every cable news organization in the nation when she gets pegged, you should be getting a visit from child protective services not a sack full of left-wing moralized sympathy.
You can’t use Bristol Palin as an argument for Abstinence Education. It’s ignorant and foolish. But having a serious conversation about children’s sex education can’t continue when you’ve got people holding up their unwed pregnant teenage daughters as the bastions of conservative virtue.
Letterman’s joke might have been tasteless. But when you’ve got Glenn “Kill the Liberals” Beck and Rush “I want America to Fail” Limbaugh leading the charge on verbal propriety… I just don’t care anymore. I was sick of this “kid gloves” approach four years ago. Conservatives don’t play nice. So let’m throw their hissy fits. Don’t feel obligated to play nice back.
I’ve seen bad jokes about Britney Spears and Molley Cyris. I’ve seen bad jokes about Suri Cruise. And not a word from even the most die-hard “save the children” folks on this board. What makes the Palin family special – other than their own personal whine-o squad whipping up the WATB parade?
MikeJ
Most people make that mistake? I know that there are more teenage pregnancies now than there used to be, but I still doubt that it’s a majority. Lots of people have lots of sex as teens and have nothing but fun.
The fact that she’s trying to get other people to use the same method of birth control she used makes her a valid object of ridicule.
AhabTRuler
For years here in DC, there was graffitti on a wall on Florida Ave, NW that said “Jail Neil Bush!” Eventually it was covered over with an uplifting mural, but I still miss it.
That, and the wall outside my school where someone turned “Black Sabbath” into “Black Sunbathers,” which was hysterical.
JK
@asiangrrlMN:
That top ten list was right on the money.
Given McCain’s track record of inappropriate comments, he should just shut the hell up.
Regardless of how one feels about David Letterman’s jokes, the bottom line is that Sarah Palin is a clueless, fucking moron who has no business whatsoever being mentioned as a potential presidential candidate. The attention that the MSM has lavished on Palin is nauseating and disgusting. The worst thing about Letterman’s top ten list is that it gave Palin a chance to play the victim card one more time.
Mouse Tolliver
Did Jay Leno ever apologize for joking that a still 17-year-old Bristol Palin was knocked-up by John Edwards?
Jim
Most people make that mistake? I know that there are more teenage pregnancies now than there used to be, but I still doubt that it’s a majority. Lots of people have lots of sex as teens and have nothing but fun.
un-birth-controlled sex, russian roulette with sperm and eggs, I meant. and if you saw that interview when Mama Palin came barging in after Bristol slipped off her talking points and said abstinence doesn’t work, you can imagine what that kid’s dealing with at home while she’s trying to raise a baby.
MikeJ
Regardless of Sarah Palin’s bad behavior, the kids should be off limits until they start their own careers as public figures, as Bristol has since done.
gbear
Here’s another one for the ‘It was just a joke!’ dept.: A republican staffer in TN gets busted for sending out a racist image via email because she clicked ‘the wrong list’. Oopie.
Brachiator
@DougJ:
The later comment from Paul L is obliquely making my point. Some conservatives and their hangers-on want to be able to hide behind the kids they like while making cheap shots against politicians they don’t like.
Palin drafter her older daughter into her pro-life family values picture, and even dragged the daughter’s boyfriend into it.
It’s hard to pull your kids into the center of a political issue and then draw a line and say that they cannot be targets for comedians.
And note here that I am willfully inconsistent in that I think that what professional comedians can get away with is not the same thing as the behavior of politicians, who I think should stay away from the family of their opponents.
And when Palin refuses to accept Letterman’s apology, insists on lying about the nature of the original joke, and gets other Republicans and conservatives to join in on deliberately dishonest bashing, then I think that the GOP is playing with fire and is inviting a comedic ass-kicking.
Adrienne
Victim my ass. Bristol is now an ADULT. She CHOSE to become a political entity and she CHOSE to get out in the media for her own gain. Now, granted the only reason she has those opportunities or why anyone cares is because of who her mother is, but that knife cuts both ways. She can’t tap into her mother’s quasi-celebrity as a springboard to her own quasi-celebrity and then complain when, due to that celebrity, she becomes the subject of the same type of jokes that are standard for everyone else.
YellowJournalism
And why now defend Bristol Palin from such jokes, when she’s currently a public figure and an adult, instead of earlier during the campaign when much worse jokes were being thrown Bristol’s way by Leno, Conan, etc. when she was underage? People argue that Sarah Palin is being a mother here, defending her child. So does that mean during the campaign she was too busy being a politician to defend her underage pregnant daughter?
No time for being a protective mom until the MSM is ignoring you, I suppose.
28 Percent
You people do not get it this is not fair toe Willow. I know most of you think that it was Palin that Letterman was making the joke about because she is the one who was pregnant and is now on tour preaching abstinence, but if you check frames 223 and 224 of the film at the game closely you will see that it was not Bristol it was Willow and she is only fourteen! How would you feel if you were fourteen and everybody in your school knew that David Letterman if that is his real name had said that you had sex with a three-time American League MVP with the record for youngest player to hit 500 career home runs, a quarter billion dollars in career earnings, and a steroid problem? You would never live it down! And the boys woudl not leave you alone because they would think that you were “loose” and not judgemental about the kinds of problems steroid users have in the bedroom if you know what I mean.
This is horrible and I doe not know how you can sanction this.
Dr. Loveless
While she’s “at large,” is it too much to ask that she learn how to construct a proper English sentence?
I mean, “step in the footsteps”? Jesus wept.
Dusty
The Letterman staff definitely screwed up by assuming that Bristol had come to NYC with her mother, but the joke was clearly intended to be about Bristol, not Willow. That created an opening for Palin to exploit and she’s the one dragging that 14-year-old girl into this, not Letterman. She’s the one who keeps harping on about statutory rape and how she’s not sure she can trust her daughter with Letterman.
Jennifer
@Dr. Loveless: I mean, “step in the footsteps”? Jesus wept.
Really. If she had said, “step in the clownshoes” it would have made much more sense.
Paul L.
Jim Treacher twitted the new David Letterman/Andrew Sullivan/John Cole/Doug J Narrative/Talking point to address that
brandon
28 Percent is posting for the lulz there, Dusty. “Frames 223 and 224 of the film,” hehe.
Paul L.
@Dusty:
That’s taking responsibility. Blame the staff.
Worked for Obama.
Dusty
Letterman has a writing staff. Is that some kind of secret? But, fine, yes, Letterman is ultimately responsible for what goes out on his show. So he is also responsible for not confirming that Bristol was actually with Palin at the ballgame.
It’s still just a simple mistake and it’s absurd and offensive for Palin to keep pretending that Letterman meant those comments to be about Willow, not Bristol. That isn’t a mistake on Palin’s part; that’s calculated.
Max Peck
What was Lettermans joke?
TenguPhule
Where to start?
A few bad apples in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib?
DougJ
She’s an 18 year-old girl. Cut her some slack, I say.
The most creepy and wrong thing is Palin mere insisting that Dave was talking about her fourteen year-old daughter, though.
Tsulagi
@28 Percent:
Nice try there, 28%er. Diverting attention from frames 669 and 670 where A-Rod is clearly visible with a woman wearing a diaper, sunglasses, and a fright wig. Clearly that is Bristol who secretly drove to the game disguised as an astronaut.
28 Percent
@Tsulagi: Do not be silly there is an obstruction in frames 669 and 670 it is impossible to tell if Rodriguez fired a magic bullet at any of the Palins no matter how much you LIEBERALS woudl like it Bristol was not at the game and A-Rod has never gotten near her “grassy knoll”
Dusty
I don’t have the impression Bristol Palin has chosen to become a political entity. That’s all Sarah Palin, exploiting her daughter’s sexuality for political gain by making her a pro-abstinence cautionary tale, just as she dragged her kids around on the campaign trail instead of leaving them in school, just as she’s now using another daughter’s sexuality to establish her culture warrior bona fides.
Bill
Jokes about daughters getting knocked up are as old as civilization(have you the one about the farmers daughter…).
As usual it’s the fake outrage that’s contemptible.Conservative icon Ann Coulter just published a book denouncing single mothers as sluts raising the next generation of rapists;but dont hold your breath expecting either Palin to denounce her or Coulter to utter a peep about the governer that allowed a teenage boy to live with her daughter with predictable results.
shoutingattherain
@Ash Can
This whole fainting routine over what Letterman said about Palin feels more like paybacks for the reaming DL gave Big Mac during the election.
Jimmy Kimmel's butt
Just for the record, I always use protection.
Pasquinade
Dusty, the Letterman show was filmed BEFORE the game. How could Dave or any of his writers know a Palin daughter might (and no proof that one was) be at the game.
FReepers will not be having sex tonight (like that is an exception)…they are orgasming because “Embassy Suites, part of the Hilton Hotels Corp., pulled advertising on CBS’ site”
“We received lots of e-mails from concerned guests and we assessed that the statement that he made was offensive enough to our guests and prospective guests that we elected to take the ads down,” Walker said. She declined to release the cost of the ads.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272394/posts
Here’s the Seattle PI link: http://www.seattlepi.com/tvguide/407238_tvgif15.html
Dusty
The game was on Sunday, the Letterman show was on Monday. Did he not film the show on Monday?
He’s apologizing on tonight’s show.
Brachiator
@Dusty:
Non-issue. Letterman’s staff was going for a joke, not news reporting, and didn’t check who exactly was at the baseball game.
Now, the only question is, will the GOP Smear machine move on, or will it still push the lie that Letterman made the joke about the younger daughter?
Easy money on the lie continuing to be pushed, along with gloating over a conquest over “librul media.”
Silly Ratfaced Git
The Palinator™ is a media whore who is blowing her latest trick.
A-Rod would be a significant step up from the unemployed hockey stick. I thought Dave paid Bristol a complement.
binzinerator
@DougJ:
This is the most significant thing for me too.
It’s so disturbing to see Palin willing to victimize her 14-year-old daughter to restart a culture war she thinks will benefit her in particular and conservatism generally.
What decent parent do this to their 9th grade daughter — insist on victimization where none was intended?
Is there nothing the ‘party of family values’ isn’t fucked up and hypocritical about?