Child's Play

I'll make this really quick and dirty because I'm busy this morning.

Chances are that by now you've seen at least one leg, possibly two or three, of the Palin Family Righteous Indignation tour. Matriarch Sarah, the soon-to-be 40-something great-grandmother who inexplicably refuses to go the hell away, is making the rounds on network TV decrying the smarmy elitist evil of David Letterman, who a couple of nights ago made a stupid but relatively harmless off-color crack about Palin's 14-year-old daughter, Willow. He'd meant to make a joke about the oldest girl, teen mom sensation Bristol, saying that Alex Rodriguez had knocked her up at a Yankees game, but as circumstance would have it, it was Willow who was at the game with her family.

Hence, the swift and entirely horseshit outrage from the right in general and the Palin family in particular.

Letterman has already apologized for the remark, saying that it was an accident, though still somewhat inexcusable. But needless to say that's not good enough for the Palin clan. And of course it wouldn't be -- because the truth is that the resulting blowback is less about getting "justice" for their young daughter, about defending her honor, than it is about milking this politically opportune controversy for all it's worth. The Palins put their children on display prominently at all times, using them as stage props to further their own personal and political agenda (come on, Bristol going on the road as a spokesperson for abstinence?) and get the added benefit of being able to fire back loudly at anyone who dares to comment on it in a way they don't approve of. It's as if the rest of us are supposed to pretend that the kids aren't there -- even though the Palins have made that virtually impossible.

Sarah and Todd Palin don't want their adversaries making jokes about their children? They should keep their children out of the limelight instead of shamelessly shoving them into it whenever it's politically expedient.

I'm not justifying Letterman's comment -- just saying that the Palins' reaction to it, their holier-than-thou umbrage, is laughable.