Dave and the very eventual apology

I saw just as I logged in that Michelle Malkin had titled her latest post "David Letterman's half-a****d apology." I assume her assumptions were similar to mine.

So Dave finally did say he was sorry last night after what, a week of defending his jokes? Here is where my own impressions of the whole sorry saga may be different from most.

I always did assume that Dave thought that Bristol was the daughter who was attending the Yankees game with her mother and Rudy Guiliani. I, of course, didn't like the joke about Alex Rodriguez "knocking her up" in whatever inning it was. But that was primarily because of the nature of the joke, not because I thought it was directed at a 14-year-old. I don't believe Letterman would stoop THAT low.

The joke that ticked me off was the one where reference was made to Sarah Palin shopping at Bloomingdale's to "update her slutty flight attendant look." The word "slut" is a foul and loathsome term. To my knowledge, I have used it once in my life; that was many years ago in reference to a public figure who shall remain nameless. I wish I hadn't used it then and I wouldn't today, but suffice it to say that in the case where I did employ it, most would agree that it was somewhat justified.

That David Letterman would apply this adjective to Sarah Palin with no outcry (that I have heard) from the feminist Left manifests what a fraud a movement that once stood for something has become. And it shows what a nasty, angry old man Letterman really is.

Sarah Palin would not be my choice for President in 2012. But she is an attractive and accomplished woman who has been elected twice, by large margins, as governor of a fine state. That she continues to be subjected to such withering abuse, with little to no rebuke from the other side, is a mystery to me. (Mika Brzezinski did stand up and always has for Sarah.)

If this is any measure of consistency, I would also castigate a fellow conservative who belittled Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Mikulski or Debbie Stabenow in this fashion.