David Letterman Signs Up Republicans


In an overwrought book review reeking of paranoia, the editors of Human Events wrote

They did it to Dan Quayle, they did it to George W. Bush, and they've done it to numerous other conservative politicians: liberal media talking heads and late-night comedians chortle repeatedly and relentlessly over their flubs, their gaffes, their errors -- and their alleged scandals, incompetence, and stupidity. The plan is to get the whole country laughing at the victim of this tactic, so that his effectiveness on the national stage is ended, and his political career in ruins. It worked with Quayle, and severely damaged Bush. But every now and then a conservative politician emerges who is courageous and intelligent enough to defeat this nasty and brutal assault.

The (alleged) victim to whom they were referring was not Mitt Romney, but Sarah Palin, who deserved, oh, about 150% of the criticism and ridicule she received.

Mitt Romney is another conservative, not subject to as much ridicule as was the governor of Alaska, who was plucked out of virtual obscurity to stand for election to an office to which the American people realized she was not qualified.     But Romney has been ridiculed, and not at all helpfully to those of us eager to see a liberal working majority in the nation's capital.

The culprit- and this word is far milder than deserved- is David Letterman.        I get it- Obama is cool, Romney is not; Obama can sing, Romney cannot.        But making the point by showing (video below) just how much a rube Mitt Romney is because he sings 'America the Beautiful' (a little off-key) in public is flat-out wrong.     And it smacks of the elitism conservatives, such as the editors of Human Events, delight in accusing liberals of.  

Romney wasn't moved to a spontaneous display of heartfelt patriotism.      He was currying favor with the crowd in a manner in which he would be inoculated from criticism, not unlike Barack Obama ending every speech with "and God Bless the United States of America."    (God will do so if and when He chooses.)     Or Senator Obama wearing on his lapel in 2008 an American flag pin, while John McCain, whom no one would ever accuse of a lack of patriotism (or African birth or Muslim preferences), found unnecessary.

Ridicule, however, is a no-lose proposition for Letterman.    He is guaranteed a few laughs and, if it indirectly advances the cause of congressional conservatives, he would suffer nothing worse than even bigger tax cuts from the Party of the 1%.  

A few days ago, Politico observed "as the president gears up for a reelection run that's going to struggle with independents and moderates, his team is looking to revive the cool appeal." Video of the President covering an Al Green hit works up to a point- until such time as it is contrasted with his likely opponent singing  (heaven forbid)  "America the Beautiful."      It reinforces in voters the myth that Hollywood (or Manhattan, in this case) is in bed with the Democratic Party and opposed to the values of ordinary Americans.       And that cannot end well.










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Quote Of The Week

"She seems to have a kind of Nixonian chip on her shoulder the size of a boulder. You know, she-she just can't stop sort of sticking it to people as she goes along."

-Tina Brown, co-founder of thedailybeast.com, on MSNBC's Hardball on 6/16/08, on Sarah Palin's response to David Letterman's apology

Reaction To Palin-Letterman

Evolution? First Amendment? U.S. military women and men? Who would have thought Sarah Palin is an advocate of all three?

The Alaskan Governor's response on June 16 was chock full of non sequiturs:

Of course it's accepted on behalf of young women, like my daughters, who hope men who 'joke' about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve," the statement read.

"Letterman certainly has the right to 'joke' about whatever he wants to, and thankfully we have the right to express our reaction. And this is all thanks to our U.S. military women and men putting their lives on the line for us to secure America's right to free speech -- in this case, may that right be used to promote equality and respect.

When Governor Palin expressed her support for teaching both evolution and creationism to public school students, the assumption set in that, a firm opponent of abortion rights and skeptic of gay rights, she was a flat-out creationist. Such assumption appears invalid, with Palin now suggesting that men of offensive humor "will soon evolve."

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann rhetorically asked "Governor, how many times do we have to go through this? The first amendment does not apply to stuff people say on television." One would have thought the governor of a state (let alone a former vice-presidential nominee) would realize the First Amendment guarantees only that the federal government (and the state government,via the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment) does not abridge the right to free speech. (And even with that, there are limits.)

Palin also was criticized by Ed Schultz, who in turn was blasted by the conservative Repub website newsbusters.org, which then was condemned by Schultz.

With little sense of irony, Governor Palin uses the term "evolve;" demonstrates little or no concept of the First Amendment; and tries to manipulate the patriotism of the American people by conflating her conflict with a talk-show host with the "U.S. military women and men putting their lives on the line for us." There is little, presumably short of violence or brazen illegality, that she will not do to keep herself in the news. And Mrs. Palin does so by using the symbolism of the American soldier for relatively trivial purposes as a prop in her pursuit of political influence.

The Apology

"I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted. I did not mean offense and I take full responsibility if what I said offended them."

This is a rough approximation of the classic, standard "apology" offered by politicians and celebrities of various sorts. This was not the apology (video below) given by CBS' talk show host David Letterman last night. From tvweek.com, as received from CBS publicity, a transcript of his comments:

"All right, here - I've been thinking about this situation with Governor Palin and her family now for about a week - it was a week ago tonight, and maybe you know about it, maybe you don't know about it. But there was a joke that I told, and I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There's no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can't be defended. The next day, people are outraged. They're angry at me because they said, 'How could you make a lousy joke like that about the 14-year-old girl who was at the ball game?' And I had, honestly, no idea that the 14-year-old girl, I had no idea that anybody was at the ball game except the Governor and I was told at the time she was there with Rudy Giuliani...And I really should have made the joke about Rudy..." (audience applauds) "But I didn't, and now people are getting angry and they're saying, 'Well, how can you say something like that about a 14-year-old girl, and does that make you feel good to make those horrible jokes about a kid who's completely innocent, minding her own business,' and, turns out, she was at the ball game. I had no idea she was there. So she's now at the ball game and people think that I made the joke about her. And, but still, I'm wondering, 'Well, what can I do to help people understand that I would never make a joke like this?' I've never made jokes like this as long as we've been on the air, 30 long years, and you can't really be doing jokes like that. And I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself.

"And then I was watching the Jim Lehrer 'Newshour' - this commentator, the columnist Mark Shields, was talking about how I had made this indefensible joke about the 14-year-old girl, and I thought, 'Oh, boy, now I'm beginning to understand what the problem is here. It's the perception rather than the intent.' It doesn't make any difference what my intent was, it's the perception. And, as they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it's not a very good joke. And I'm certainly - " (audience applause) "- thank you. Well, my responsibility - I take full blame for that. I told a bad joke. I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception. And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke. It's not your fault that it was misunderstood, it's my fault. That it was misunderstood." (audience applauds)

"Thank you. So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I'm sorry about it and I'll try to do better in the future. Thank you very much." (audience applause)

"All right, here - I've been thinking about this situation with Governor Palin and her family now for about a week - it was a week ago tonight, and maybe you know about it, maybe you don't know about it. But there was a joke that I told, and I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There's no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can't be defended. The next day, people are outraged. They're angry at me because they said, 'How could you make a lousy joke like that about the 14-year-old girl who was at the ball game?' And I had, honestly, no idea that the 14-year-old girl, I had no idea that anybody was at the ball game except the Governor and I was told at the time she was there with Rudy Giuliani...And I really should have made the joke about Rudy..." (audience applauds)

"But I didn't, and now people are getting angry and they're saying, 'Well, how can you say something like that about a 14-year-old girl, and does that make you feel good to make those horrible jokes about a kid who's completely innocent, minding her own business,' and, turns out, she was at the ball game. I had no idea she was there. So she's now at the ball game and people think that I made the joke about her. And, but still, I'm wondering, 'Well, what can I do to help people understand that I would never make a joke like this?' I've never made jokes like this as long as we've been on the air, 30 long years, and you can't really be doing jokes like that. And I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself

No one knows, at this point, why the apology was made- if, for instance, CBS demanded Letterman issue a statement of regret, or whether he was threatended with discipline or even reacting to the imminence of a planned demonstration. And no one can know with certainty whether the remarks were sincere. But we do know Letterman conceded

I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception. And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke. It's not your fault that it was misunderstood, it's my fault. That it was misunderstood.

The host admitted his reprehensible joke "was beyond flawed" and stated that it the perception was his own fault- no one else's. He noted, earlier in the statement, "it doesn't make any difference what my intent was." And he did not take responsibility- which has become so easy to do- but instead accepted blame.

This apology was thorough and classy.

And what of Governor Palin's response on June 10 to the joke (crude and quite not funny) itself?

Concerning Letterman's comments about my young daughter (and I doubt he'd ever dare make such comments about anyone else's daughter): 'Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl....

Perhaps Palin would have been comforted if the comment had been made by a 32-year-old male. Or by an 18-year-old male. Or by a woman. Statements like these are not casually made, and this one was a cheap shot by a classless political animal. Then again, perhaps such is not surprising from someone serving on a ticket with a presidential candidate who himself demonstrated such distaste for anyone of advanced age.