Well, yeah, when it starts costing them money...

Late night talk show host David Letterman apologized again on Monday to the Palin family for his "joke" regarding Willow Palin:

On Monday's edition of "Late Show," Letterman explained that the risque joke thought by some to have targeted Palin's underage daughter, Willow, was actually referring to 18-year-old daughter Bristol. The name of the daughter wasn't mentioned in the joke, which was part of Letterman's monologue on last Monday's show.

It was "a coarse joke," "a bad joke," Letterman told viewers. "But I never thought it was (about) anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure, in fact, that she is of legal age, 18."

"The joke, really, in and of itself, can't be defended," he declared.

The apology follows news that CBS has lost an advertiser on its website:

Embassy Suites, part of the Hilton Hotels Corp., pulled advertising on CBS' site because of complaints, company spokeswoman Kendra Walker told TVGuide.com. The company was not an advertiser on Late Night with David Letterman.

"We received lots of e-mails from concerned guests and we assessed that the statement that he made was offensive enough to our guests and prospective guests that we elected to take the ads down," Walker said.

CBS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Letterman's apology was less defensive than his previous "apology" and seemed to understand the uproar:

On Monday's show, Letterman said, "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."

If that's the misconception — that the joke was aimed at a 14-year-old — he understands why people are upset, he said. "I would be upset myself." Letterman has said from the beginning that he thought the Palin daughter who attended the Yankee game was Bristol.

"I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke," he said. "It's not your fault that it was misunderstood, it's my fault that it was misunderstood."

He apologized to both daughters, "and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke," he said as the studio audience applauded. "I'm sorry about it, and I'll try to do better in the future."

He's still not funny. However, I'm hoping the Palins at this point consider the matter closed since the apology is probably the most they can reasonably expect.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a very expensive photo op gone awry!

So after spending over $300,000 and scaring the bejeebers outta New York City, the Obama Administration would like to airbrush history.

The $328,835 snapshots of an Air Force One backup plane buzzing lower Manhattan last week will not be shown to the public, the White House said yesterday.

"We have no plans to release them," an aide to President Obama told The Post, refusing to comment further.

The sole purpose of the secret photo-op, which sent thousands of New Yorkers running for cover, was to take new publicity shots of the presidential jet over the city.

"The photos . . . are classified -- that's ridiculous," Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., said.

The photos have not technically been "classified," a White House aide said, but they are being kept from public view.

Just wait. Next week the press will be reporting the plane didn't really fly over New York City. It was a helicopter with Sarah Palin in it hunting a moose.

Big spending GOP governors looking for DC cash

Republican governors lobbying Washington D.C. for the "stimulus" package should be taking the lead from House Republicans. Sadly, many of them are not, including Governor Palin.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, planned to meet in Washington this weekend with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other senators to press for her state's share of the package.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist worked the phones last week with members of his state's congressional delegation, including House Republicans. Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, the Republican vice chairman of the National Governors Association, planned to be in Washington on Monday to urge the Senate to approve the plan.

"As the executive of a state experiencing budget challenges, Gov. Douglas has a different perspective on the situation than congressional Republicans," said Douglas' deputy chief of staff, Dennise Casey.

Fortunately there are a few that aren't ready to take a blow torch to a pile of cash. Jindal and Pawlenty said they would take the money but objected to the size of the bill, while Haley Barbour and Mark Sanford are not even sure if their states are going to accept any of the money.

Can we move the spotlight back, please?

I'm stealing from a Twitter post:

What gets more press next week: Bristol Palin giving birth, or Obama team's internal review of Blago contacts?

Happy Thanksgiving

For this week's column in the Waukesha Freeman, I mention a few of the things for which I am grateful. I am especially grateful I am not having dinner with an editor of the New York Times:

Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin recently did the Thanksgiving photo opportunity of pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey at a turkey farm. While the press was interviewing her on camera, the turkey farmer processed a couple of turkeys in the background.

The squeamish New York Times editorial board actually complained about Palin’s interview, calling the slaughter of the turkeys an "execution" and "carnage." What do they eat for Thanksgiving? Tofu?

Sarah Palin's critics are a bunch of wimps

Ann Althouse even calls them "candy-asses." The Huffington Post is having an attack of the vapors because Governor Palin is answering questions from reporters while turkeys (you know, next Thursday's dinner) are getting slaughtered in the background.

I think Sean Hackbarth may have a small point about needing a Mike Deaver to better set these photo ops. But the fainting spells are just a little silly.

I've never understood squeamishness. How do these people live their lives the rest of the time?

Post-Obamalyptic thoughts

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you!
God damn you all to hell!
- Planet of the Apes, 1968

One, let's start by acknowledging the voters were wrong on Tuesday. We live in a republic with regular elections. These things will happen from time to time.

Of course, if I was, say, a right-wing version of Wisconsin State Journal, I'd call for an end to elections. But silly me, I actually like elections, even when they pick the wrong people. It's the Neo-Conservative in me.

Let's start at the top. Barry O'Bama is the most Irish a President has been since freakin' JFK. With a name like that and the luck he had during the election, he's more Irish than a Leprechaun. C'mon. Who would'a thunk that entire financial markets would conspire to go into the dumpster just when Senator McCain was building momentum? And that McCain would actually take the bait, ride his White Horse to Washington, and get tagged for bailing out corporate fat cats and doing it incompetently?

It takes the Right Stuff to be so wrong.

But it's not like McCain was exactly cruising to victory when the markets crashed. As Byron York pointed out in National Review, the odds of electing any Republican as president this year were pretty poor. And of course, no mere mortal Republican has ever faced an Irish pagan deity before like Barry O'Bama. When they're sacrificing goats to the guy in far away Kenya, what chance does a guy like McCain have?

Was McCain the best choice for Republicans? Hardly. Former Senator Fred Thompson could have at least articulated a conservative message. Former Governor Romney could have made an economic case for conservativism. Former Governor Huckabee could have made an interesting populist candidate, although I think the party would just as soon evolve without him. Giuliani would have made a great Attorney General for somebody... as long as judicial selections were handled by the White House Counsel office.

But McCain won the primary campaign by default and shortly afterwards his national constituency, the press corps, joined the Kenyan goat-sacrificers in O'Bama worship.

So now we plot for 2012 and a second chance at Barry O'Bama. Fortunately the bench is starting to show some surprising strength. In addition to Governor Palin we have the return of former Governor Romney, and current Louisiana Governor Jindal. Notice something? Conservatives could back any of them. What a change four years will make.

Palin cleared by panel in so-called "Trooper-gate"

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was cleared today of any wrongdoing in the so-called "trooper-gate" scandal.

Alaska Gov. and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was cleared on Monday of wrongdoing in an abuse-of-power investigation into the firing of the state's public safety commissioner.

The Alaska Personnel Board report, issued on the eve of the U.S. presidential election, ran contrary to findings from a legislative inquiry that concluded in October that Palin had abused the power of her office by pressuring subordinates to fire a state trooper involved in a feud with her family.

Palin, who is Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, brought the issue to the personnel board herself after complaining the legislative probe was a partisan effort led by Democrats.

The board, a three-member panel under Palin's authority, was responsible for determining if she had broken any laws.

The investigation concluded there was no "probable cause" that Palin violated the state's executive ethics act in dismissing Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner.

The name "Trooper-gate" is now back where it belongs, among the many scandals of Bill Clinton.

I'm reminded of Richard Allen, national security advisor under President Reagan, who was investigated and ultimately cleared in an ethics investigation. He wondered to which government agency he could go to get his reputation back.

Thankfully we still have The National Topsider to rescue the conservative movement from McCain-Palin

Because four-to-eight years among the Palin Philistines is more of a prison sentence than a day at the country club, The National Topsider endorses the Harvard tie of Barack Obama.

(Ht: Sean Hackbarth)

Can they contain themselves?

Beth Fouhy of the Associated press lets us know exactly where she is coming from:

Pell Blakeman, a Palin supporter who now calls himself "Pell the Electrician" in honor of the infamous Joe the Plumber, captured her appeal this way: "She just connects with the people. She's doing a fine job and she'll make a fine president one day."

Infamous?

Really?

Rogue VP Candidate

And it's not Governor Palin.

Anyone who has watched Joe Biden over 35 years in the Senate might have a little bit of trouble recognizing the guy who is running to be Barack Obama's Vice President. Oh, yes, he looks like the same fellow. But traveling with Biden during this campaign has sometimes been like reporting on a politician packaged in shrink-wrap. While his windy, off-point pontification was the stuff of legend among his Senate colleagues, Biden is now leashed to a teleprompter even when he is talking in a high school gym that is three-quarters empty. The exposure hound who in recent years appeared more often than any other guest on the Sunday talk shows is a virtual stranger to the small band of reporters on his plane — less accessible than even Sarah Palin is to her traveling pack of bloodhounds. And Biden keeps to a schedule that provides a minimum of off-the-cuff encounters with voters, except across a rope line.

Gee, why would they have to hide a US Senator with over 35 years of experience?

Sticking to a script has never been one of Biden's stronger suits, as he demonstrated recently at a Seattle fund raiser. "Mark my words: it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy," Biden told the $1,000-a-ticket Democratic donors, who no doubt were startled to discover that the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse had ridden into the downtown Sheraton. "Remember, I said it standing here, if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch — we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

Oh yeah. Wonder what kind of Vice President the Biden babbler might be?

It would have been nice to ask that question of Biden himself, but a campaign spokesman told me the Senator was suffering from a cold that made it a strain to give interviews. (I didn't glean evidence of any symptoms during the four speeches that I watched him give over two days.) The spokesman also said Biden would consider it "presumptuous" to talk about how he would perform the job for which he is running. Or maybe it simply wasn't in the script.

You betcha she's a VP candidate

Governor Palin gives a textbook Vice Presidential candidate speech. Ht: Charlie Sykes

Great stuff.

The most over-hyped non-story of the year never actually happened

Sorry, it didn't actually happen. 

But all of the Palin derangement syndrome, the Sandra Bernhard racially-charged rape threat,  the attempts by Obama supporters to silence the opposition, the threats, racial smears and epithets hurled at a local radio personality, that stuff actually does happen.

Too bad what actually happens does not fit the The Narrative of the Obama.

Palin hacker indicted

At least part of this farce is moving in the right direction.

David Kernell, 20, son of Memphis Democrat Mike Kernell, has turned himself into federal authorities for arrest and will be arraigned Wednesday morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley, the Department of Justice said.

Kernell was indicted on Tuesday by the grand jury on a single count of "intentionally accessing without authorization" the e-mail account of the Alaskan governor, the DOJ said. The indictment was unsealed on Wednesday.

Of course, we'll see if any actual punishment happens. And don't forget the usual excuse-making:

REDNECKS LOVE OBAMA October 8th, 2008 10:15 am ET

McCain/Palin bring out the WORST qualities in people. McCain proved in the debate last night how OUT OF TOUCH, ANGRY, MEAN SPIRITED, HATEFUL, and ERRATIC he is.

PUMBU October 8th, 2008 10:14 am ET

PALIN IS UNFIT TO BE A PRESIDENT OF THIS NATION, ESPECIALLY NOW. GO BACK TO ALASKA, PEOPLE ARE STILL TRASHING THEIR GARBAGE IN THE SEA. SHE IS A JOKE!!!!!!!!

It's all Governor Palin's fault.

Dana Milbank's nasty little propaganda piece

If Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank is wondering why "journalists" are so unpopular at Governor Palin events, maybe Milbank should re-read his attack piece on Governor Palin.  Milbank, perhaps upset at the reception a few journalists received at the recent event, purposely inserted quotes from unstable people in the audience in an effort to link in the mind of the reader their remarks to what Palin said.  It's crude propaganda, unfortunately effective because he has the good name of the Washington Post backing him.

What is especially frustrating about Milbank's hit piece is how little actual connection exists between Palin and the couple of anonymous cranks in her audience while the media either ignores or badly attempts to explain away Senator Obama's relationship with the violent radical Bill Ayers.

Update! I wonder what Dana Milbank and those that are aghast at the remarks of a couple of cranks at a campaign stop think of something like this? Would this constitute Palin hatred fostered by Obama? And should the Secret Service get involved?

Off their feed

The Waukesha Republican Party met last night at the Country Springs Hotel where fortunately nobody drowned their sorrows literally. My spies tell me there was a decided lack of energy and enthusiasm at last night's "Grazing with the Elephants 2008". Not a good sign for Senator McCain's chances this November.

We'll see if the enthusiasm can be made up by the crowd attending Thursday's McCain-Palin visit which is not in Pewaukee but is actually being held at the City of Waukesha's sports complex. No, not Frame Park, the other sports complex.

Center Court Sports Complex
815 Northview Boulevard
Waukesha, WI 53188
(414) 326-4250

Apparently only events making the Waukesha GOP calendar are at the Country Springs Hotel. All other nominally GOP events must find someplace else.

What's really great about McCain-Palin town hall meeting is that it finally gives Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson an opportunity to welcome such distinguished visitors to our city at an event that will bring Waukesha so much publicity and national recognition. And we can't wait for City Administrator Lori Luther to show her security savvy at a presidential campaign event once again.

(Note: the Badger Blog Alliance has all of the details for Thursday's events.)

Quote of the morning

From the Spring City Chronicle:

There’s a vice presidential debate tonight and I have to admit, I don’t really care. But in my experience let me say this: Mrs. Palin’s a very good looking woman. Sometimes that makes old men say stupid things to impress them. Sometimes it makes them tongue-tied. Sometimes it makes them act foolishly. The thing about politicians is that they have such enormous egos. Joe Biden is in that class. So I predict that despite all evidence to the contrary, Joe Biden will believe he is the prettiest one on the stage.

Northeast Corridor Conservatives

Following up on a response that I gave a local liberal who asked why some in the conservative movement were slow to embrace Sarah Palin when the base quickly embraced her, someone else sent me this article on Northeast Corridor Conservatives. It's an interesting point worth discussing about a cultural divide within the conservative movement. However I think the divide is not so much regional as there may be other factors, and we can see a cultural divide among conservatives even here in Wisconsin. It's more or less aggravated depending on the issue.

Anyway, I also posted this over at the Wisconsin Institute for Leadership for discussion.

Liberal Pavlovian response check

Palin!

I wonder, too

I bet they think she's hot.