Sarah Palin's (Grand-)Baby Ate My Editorial Calendar

Oh, what an agida-inducing weekend that was. That's my excuse, anyway, for the tardiness of my Cincinnati trip report and Brendan Reilly interview. Every time I tried to finish writing them, another one of my friends was either dumping their boyfriend, being dumped themselves, or calling me after being thrown out of someone's car.

I thought the icing on the cake would be seeing my own ex out with an old date of mine at Side Track. Then I thought the clincher would be me accidentally letting another friend's ex know he was an ex before he had actually been made an ex. Saturday evening I was betting it would be the guy from Bear411 begging me to come over and cuddle with him because he'd been "lonely for far too long" who was going to push me over the edge.

As it turned out, what really got me foaming at the mouth was the whole Sarah Palin, my-teenage-daughter-is-a-pregger affair. Not so much that the Washington Post provided pretty balanced coverage while the New York Times story practically gave Palin a blow job. But more the way the entire conservative establishment seems willing to give Palin a pass on the provocative issue.

You're kidding, right? Because the Alaska governor is John McCain's GOP vice-presidential running mate, the Christian right thinks it's a win for family values that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant (meaning she was how old when she got knocked up?), keeping her baby, and getting hitched to her teenage baby daddy?

Talk about a double standard. Has anyone else figured out that if Palin were a Black mom from the projects with an unwed pregnant teenage daughter and a similarly minor father waiting in the wings, conservatives would be shaming her on the exact same basis?

And then to add insult to injury, McCain's spokesperson has the hutzpah to order the media to leave Palin's private life out of the spotlight. You mean the same way Republicans left Bill Clinton's private life out of the spotlight during his administration?

And what about those DailyKos rumors (cross-posted on Alternet) that Palin's new son, Trig, is really her daughter's first unwed child? Palin says no, but if it's true, an egg timer will probably suffice to record the remaining lag between rumor and confirmation. McCain wanted a beyond-the-beltway VP. How much exprience do you think Alaskan GOP operatives have hiding sensitive items like that from international media?

About as much experience as I have keeping my editorial schedule on track these days. But then again, I'm not trying to rule the free world, either.

I'm just sayin'.