VIDEO: Sarah Palin Rips Letterman Over Sex Joke Involving Daughter
Jun. 12 2009, Published 2:09 p.m. ET
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, seething over a sexual joke David Letterman cracked Monday about her daughter, said she wants to see the late night host apologize for his off-color humor, and contributing to a socially degrading view toward statutory rape.
"It's not cool; it's not funny," Palin told the Today Show's Matt Lauer Friday of Letterman's punchline, which implicated that her daughter had been impregnated by Yankees tabloid magnet Alex Rodriguez during Palin's recent trip to the Big Apple.
While the governor's 14-year-old daughter, Willow, was on hand for the game, Letterman said he mistakenly thought Palin's daughter Bristol, an unwed 18-year-old mother-of-one, accompanied her. He said the joke was intended at Bristol (who has spent considerable more time in the public light than her younger sister).
She said that Letterman should show contrition for the joke "that says it’s OK to talk about statutory rape.”
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She said she was confounded by the "acceptance of a celebrity being able to get away with a disparaging comment that does erode a young girl’s self-esteem and does contribute to some of the problems we have in society."
The bee-hived beauty said that the passive acceptance of Letterman's joke is a slap in the face to the Republican party, as well.
“During the campaign, Gov. Obama said family is off limits. The ‘candidate who must be obeyed’ adhered to that -- but they haven't done that on the other side of the ticket," Palin said. "So that's a political double standard.”