The New Palin-Letterman Feud

It was shaping up to be a good week for David Letterman. Earlier this week, he beat out "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" in ratings for the first time in eight months. Then, he made one too many bad jokes about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

On his Top 10 list, Tuesday night, Letterman joked that Sarah Palin was at Bloomingdales shopping for her slutty stewardess look. But the joke that really bothered Palin was when Letterman commented on a recent Yankees game she attended. He joked that there was "an awkward moment during the seventh inning" for Palin when "her daughter was knocked up by (Yankee third baseman) Alex Rodriguez."

Letterman claims he was targeting Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, who famously got knocked up before marriage by her sometimes fiance Levi Johnston. But, as it turned out, Palin actually attended the game with her 14-year-old daughter, Willow.

"Laughter incited by sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is . . . disgusting," the Alaska governor said in a statement, according to the New York Daily News.

Letterman offered a quasi defense of his jokes on the next night's show. "Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes. Did I suggest that it was okay for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No." He asserted that the jokes were in fact targeted at Bristol, not Willow.

Palin, however, was not moved by his rationalization. "It doesn't matter whether he was talking about Willow or Bristol, what he said was unacceptable," responded Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow, the Daily News reported.

Perhaps Palin will air her grievances on his show soon and, in the process, tip Letterman's ratings over "The Tonight Show" one more time. Then everybody can say they benefited from this feud.