Greta, the 90’s Are on the Phone, They Want Their Catchphrase Back

This argument between Greta Van Susteren and Greg Jarrett is getting a lot of play, even prompting an apology from Greta.  The tiff itself is rather pedestrian, although Jarrett’s slow-burn reactions are amusing.  Never mind Van Susteren’s weird relationship with the Palins, what really stood out for me was Greta’s OJ-era patois: (h/t Hot Air)

Kudos to Jarrett for not instructing Greta to contact “the hand’s” publicist for a statement, or informing her that Homey refuses to participate in shenanigans.  Hey, it’s all good.

Gotcha! Leno Told Statutory Rape Joke, Too!

There’s a new, inevitable twist in the David Letterman-Gate joke scandal.  Alan Colmes notes that Dave’s late-night rival, Jay Leno, told his own underage Palin daughter sex joke during the campaign: (h/t HuffPo)

Letterman ‘Apologizes,’ Right Continues to Overreach

Just a quick update to yesterday’s Letterman story.  Dave issued a bullshit, completely inadequate apology in which he cops to not knowing the difference between Bristol and Willow Palin, with the inference that Bristol Palin is fair(er) game.  He still thinks Sarah Palin is “slutty.”  Letterman also reads Sarah and Todd Palin’s respective “Whoomp! There it is!” statements, so I won’t re-print them.

Unfortunately, the right continues to overreach in hanging this on “the Left.”  Melissa Clouthier and I had a little back-and-forth about this yesterday, but Conservatives4Palin ratchets it up:

I’m sorry. I have seen the Palins treated heartlessly in the past, but that video is just too much. The audience is laughing about a cruel joke made about someone’s 14-year-old daughter.

This is “hope” and “change”?

Yeah, Barack Obama is to blame for David Letterman, who’s been doing TV since Obama was 8 years old.  Or something.

I said all I had to about this yesterday, but here’s a review:

Now, I need you all to stay with me here while I make a small distinction.  There are some who would try to hang Letterman’s attack on “the Left.” I’ll get to “the Left” in a minute, but Letterman is no more a liberal, in the political “team sports” sense of the word, than Guy Cimbalo is.  They are not conservatives, but they are also basically apolitical.  Their words are owned by a popular culture that is hostile to conservatism, but also to liberal ideals (of feminism as well as others).  They are a third column.

Bill Maher is a guy who straddles the line between the Left and pop culture.  As a liberal, I don’t claim ownership for what he says, but there is a clear argument to be made in favor of this.   When he makes “retard” jokes about Sarah Palin, which I’ve heard him do frequently, he deserves nothing but scorn from all sides.

This is where the Left comes in.  While they might not own what these entertainers say, they do have a duty to dis-own, a duty born of their desire to condemn Mel “Sugar-tits” Gibson et al, a duty that I’ve found them shirking for the most part.  Instead, the tendency is to engage in “Yeahbut.”  You know, “Yeah, but x conservative said y horrible thing…” (a curious exercise that essentially lets people you view as scumbags set your boundaries for you), to excuse it, or to ignore it altogether.  It is here that the Left takes ownership.

And my response to Melissa Clouthier:

Also coincidentally, Melissa Clouthier advanced an extremely relevant hypothesis earlier today which illustrates how some will handle the Von Brunn/Wright coincidence.  The subject was the Left’s “ownership” of David Letterman, et al, in response to something I wrote this morning:

I include them with the Left, Tommy, and for one simple reason: how they vote. They vote Democrat. Every. Single. Time. They are on the Left. Like the major media organizations, they like to pretend at “being above” or “transcending” party affiliation. Bull crap. They are Democrats. They vote Democrat. They’re the Left.

Now, where does that leave Wright and Von Brunn?  While their actions are, by no means, equivalent, Wright’s comment betrays a bigotry toward Jews that would seem right at home in Von Brunn’s repertoire.  But, put to Clouthier’s voting booth test, how do we divvy these two up?

The answer is, we don’t.  If we do, we do so at our own peril.  While we waste time playing “pin the tail on the ideology,” we distract from the real enemies of freedom, who reside neither on the Right nor the Left, but beneath them.

John Ziegler Gets His Mic Cut…For This?

On the heels of Sarah Palin’s mild scolding of David Letterman on his radio show, John Ziegler appeared with MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer to discuss Palin’s reaction.  Ziegler, actually being less Ziegler-ish than usual, still manages to get his mic cut by Brewer.

This is really funny to me, because I spoke recently at a screening of John’s film, “Media Malpractice.” During the Q&A afterwards, I asked John a question I’ve asked him many times before:  How does he keep getting these shows to book him?

David Letterman Attacking Palin Women Part of a Larger Problem

(To prevent confusion later in this article, for anyone new to this blog, I am a liberal, as liberal as the day is long.  I’m so liberal, I made my kids form a labor union before assigning them chores.)

There’s a whole lot of justified outrage going on about David Letterman’s recent attacks on Sarah Palin and her 14 year-old daughter.  There really is no denunciation strong enough for these attacks, which are in many ways more egregious than the Guy Cimbalo “Hate F*** List” that Playboy and Politico took down.

Letterman’s attacks were made in an exponentially larger, broader forum, and included the statutory rape of a minor child.  They cannot be taken down or redacted.

Sarah Palin appeared on my friend John Ziegler’s radio show yesterday, where John asked her about Letterman’s act.  I’ll let her have the first word before I get to what Letterman actually said.

In case you missed it, here are Letterman’s “jokes”: (h/t Hot Air)