Bristol Twists the Knife

From Bristol Palin's Blog

Dear President Obama,

You don’t know my telephone number, but I hope your staff is busy trying to find it. Ever since you called Sandra Fluke after Rush Limbaugh called her a slut, I figured I might be next. You explained to reporters you called her because you were thinking of your two daughters, Malia and Sasha. After all, you didn’t want them to think it was okay for men to treat them that way:

“One of the things I want them to do as they get older is engage in issues they care about, even ones I may not agree with them on,” you said. “I want them to be able to speak their mind in a civil and thoughtful way. And I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names because they’re being good citizens.”

And I totally agree your kids should be able to speak their minds and engage the culture. I look forward to seeing what good things Malia and Sasha end up doing with their lives.

But here’s why I’m a little surprised my phone hasn’t rung. Your $1,000,000 donor Bill Maher has said reprehensible things about my family. He’s made fun of my brother because of his Down’s Syndrome. He’s said I was “f—-d so hard a baby fell out.” (In a classy move, he did this while his producers put up the cover of my book, which tells about the forgiveness and redemption I’ve found in God after my past – very public — mistakes.)

If Maher talked about Malia and Sasha that way, you’d return his dirty money and the Secret Service would probably have to restrain you. After all, I’ve always felt you understood my plight more than most because your mom was a teenager. That’s why you stood up for me when you were campaigning against Sen. McCain and my mom — you said vicious attacks on me should be off limits.

Yet I wonder if the Presidency has changed you. Now that you’re in office, it seems you’re only willing to defend certain women. You’re only willing to take a moral stand when you know your liberal supporters will stand behind you.

But…

What if you did something radical and wildly unpopular with your base and took a stand against the denigration of all women… even if they’re just single moms? Even if they’re Republicans?

I’m not expecting your SuperPAC to return the money. You’re going to need every dime to hang on to your presidency. I’m not even really expecting a call. But would it be too much to expect a little consistency? After all, you’re President of all Americans, not just the liberals.

The whole Fluke/Limbaugh affair has boomeranged rather badly on Obama and the liberals.  It has been the perfect  vehicle to highlight democratic hypocrisy on civility and misogyny.    Now, you can't discuss Fluke with mentioning Maher, Ed Shultz, and Keith Olberdouche, all of whom have said incredibly ugly things about conservative women without serious harm to the their careers.  One of their previous rationalizations was that the women involved (Palin, Malkin) were voluntarily public figures, and therefore "fair game" unlike Fluke, who merely testified to Congress testified to a make believe Congressional hearing.  Bristol, of course, was not, to begin with, a voluntary public figure, having been forced into it by being vilified in the 2008 campaign.

Maher is toast.  It might not happen this week or this month, but pretty soon, he'll be wanting that million dollars back, and Barack Obama will regret it's beyond his ability to command the super-pac to return it.  However, it is not beyond his ability to request it, and he should, as soon a possible.