David Letterman responded to Sarah Palin on his show Wednesday night after the Alaska governor slammed the "Late Show" host for a series of jokes he made about her and her family Monday. Palin accused Letterman of making "disgusting" and "sexually perverted" jokes about one of her daughters, including one about her daughter being impregnated by Alex Rodriguez at a Yankees game. She had also criticized Letterman for a joke about her looking like a "slutty flight attendant," which she deemed "pretty pathetic."
In a segment that lasted over 7 minutes, Letterman read the statements issued by Sarah and Todd Palin expressing their outrage about parts of his Top 10 list and then went through the offending jokes one-by-one to both apologize for and defend their content. "I'm telling you, I recognize that these are ugly. These are actually ugly. These are borderline...but again, in an act of desperation to get cheap laughs, which is what I've been doing for the last 30 years," Letterman said.
Despite maintaining his usual tone of playful sarcasm as he discussed his flap with Palin, Letterman did respond seriously to the charge that he had made a rape joke about a 14-year-old girl: "These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl," he said. Letterman insisted the jokes were intended to be about Bristol, who is 18-years-old. "Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes. Did I suggest that it was OK for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No."
He concluded by inviting Palin to come be a guest on his show.
UPDATE 6.11Sarah Palin responded Thursday morning to Dave's invitation to appear on his show in a statement to Foxnews.com: ""The Palins have no intention of providing a rating's boost for David Letterman by appearing on his show," the statement read. "Plus, it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman."