The Letterman-Palin feud continues to simmer
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David Letterman is trying to make light of his feud with Sarah Palin over jokes he made about her and her family. But the Alaskan governor has made it clear she is not having it.
Appearing on NBC’s ‘Today’ show this morning, Palin accused the ‘Late Show’ host of making a joke about the ‘statutory rape’ of her 14-year-old daughter Willow and said that his humor contributes to the low-esteem and abuse of young women.
When anchor Matt Lauer asked Palin if she would like an apology from Letterman, Palin said, ‘He doesn’t need to apologize to me. I would like to see him apologize to young women across the country’ for making it seem like it’s ‘OK or funny to talk about statutory rape. It’s not cool, it’s not funny.’
She was referring to a joke Letterman made Tuesday that referred to her daughter being ‘knocked up’ by New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez. Palin and her 14-year-old daughter Willow had attended a Yankees game. Palin’s 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, recently gave birth.
Though Letterman the following night denied the assertion that that he was advocating having sex with an underage girl, Palin said she didn’t buy it, even when Lauer appeared to support Letterman.
‘You and anybody else are very naive to believe in that very convenient excuse,’ she said, adding that it took the host ‘a couple of days to come up with it. Regardless, it was a degrading comment about a young woman.’
Palin added that the joke indicated a ‘political double standard’ since President Obama had said during the presidential campaign that the families of politicians should be off-limits to media scrutiny. Referring to Obama as ‘the candidate who must be obeyed,’ the former Republican vice presidential candidate said families of conservative politicians were still being targeted.
Her comments put the dispute back in Letterman’s court. On Thursday night’s show, he introduced himself as ‘Dave Letterman, making friends wherever I go.’ He also quipped that he thought the feud with Palin was over because she had called him earlier in the day and ‘invited me to go hunting.’
-- Greg Braxton