Letterman vs. Palin -- Decision: Palin

I'm a big David Letterman fan. Always have been. Never could stand Jay Leno, but I always appreciated Letterman's inherent anarchy. Sarah Palin? Not so much. In fact, I thought she was an embarrassment who hurt John McCain far more than she helped him during last year's presidential campaign and election.

However, in this current issue involving Letterman and Palin, I'm coming down hard on Palin's side.

In case you are not familiar with this whole affair, here it is in a nutshell: Sarah Palin and her daughter visited New York City and, while there, took in a Yankee game. Letterman joked about it and said while they were at the game, Ms. Palin's daughter was "knocked up" by the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez.

Heaven knows, I'm no prude, but I find that joke offensive and not one bit funny. I'm thinking it was crafted by one of the show's writers, but Letterman should have exercised good judgment and cut the joke before the program's taping.

But it gets worse. Letterman claims he thought Ms. Palin was traveling with her 18-year-old daughter Bristol who was in the news during the presidential campaign because she was pregnant and unwed. (OK, but this fact doesn't give Letterman the right to make offensive comments about her.) It turns out, however, Ms. Palin was actually in the company of her 14-year-old daughter Willow, so now Ms. Palin is going around saying Letterman is condoning statutory rape (an argument I don't agree with).

Letterman went to great lengths on his show Wednesday to say he would "never, ever make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl." I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one, but, I think the age issue here is irrelevant. He should have known the joke was not funny (which we all know is not a crime), in extremely poor taste and bordered on being slanderous.

Most, if not all, of my friends and associates will also confirm the fact that I am an A-Number-1 cynic and I can't help but think all this has more to do with Conan O'Brien than it does with Sarah Palin. I think Letterman saw that O'Brien, who has just succeeded Leno as the host of NBC's late night talk show, was vulnerable ratings-wise and decided to strike immediately with something that would draw attention to his program. Apparently it has worked. For the first time in more than four years, Letterman has drawn higher ratings the last couple nights than his NBC rival and is poised to win the week's ratings battle. And, of course, unless you're convicted on corruption charges, it's difficult for an Alaskan politician to remain in the headlines and I'm positive Ms. Palin is jockeying to be the GOP presidential nominee in 2012. So it's to her benefit to keep this "moral outrage" of hers on the front burners as long as possible.

Now I have one more question and I'm through with this subject: Why has Alex Rodriguez been so quiet during all this?

UPDATE: If you're planning on watching Letterman tonight to see if he stokes this fire, you'll be disappointed. Letterman always tapes his Friday shows on Mondays.