Daniel Keylin reports:
The satirical, left-leaning blog Wonkette seems to have gone too far in a recent post titled, ”Greatest Living American: A Children’s Treasury of Trig Crap On His Birthday.”
The post, written by Jack Stuef, contains numerous off-color “jokes” about Sarah Palin’s 3-year-old special needs son Trig Palin, and implies he may have been conceived as a result of incest.
“What’s he dreaming about? Nothing. He’s retarded,” wrote Steuf.
The piece also includes several Youtube clips of Trig which mock the child and his disability.
As William Jacobson notes, this isn’t the first time Wonkette has attacked Trig under the guise of political commentary on his mom. This, despite Wonkette editor Ken Layne’s claim that “Trig is cool with us.” Just imagine what they’d say about him if he wasn’t.
I’ve never understood the charge that Palin “exploits” Trig. It started from the moment she held her baby onstage at the Republican National Convention. What was she supposed to do, leave him in the car? If she hid him away with a nanny somewhere and refused to talk about him, do you really think the keen intellects who give us Wonkette.com would have no problem with it?
I used to be acquainted with Ken Layne a bit, back in the old days before he made a career of pointing and laughing at the babies of people he doesn’t like. He was one of the first bloggers I ever read, and he helped inspire me to give it a try. So it’s with a wistful sense of nostalgia that I say: Chin up, Ken. Now you get to be a martyr.
P.S. Blue on blue: Ken Layne vs. Tommy Christopher.
P.P.S. Newsbusters asks: “What has become of today’s liberalism that makes it acceptable to attack the mentally handicapped if they or their parents are conservatives?”
P.P.P.S. Wonkette deletes post ridiculing Sarah Palin’s disabled son. After Layne already told Tommy Christopher, “As you know on the internet there is no ‘taking down the post.’ Why even try that? So people like you can get another freelance internet column out of it by feigning outrage again?” Remember: Outrage that you don’t share is always phony. Well, this sort of scrubbing is nothing new. Ken completely deleted his blog archives years ago, presumably so his current audience won’t find out that he used to be sane.
P.P.P.P.S. Blue on blue, Pt. 2: Layne vs. Weigel. You know, if Sarah Palin were a liberal Democrat, people like Ken Layne wouldn’t criticize her treatment of Trig. Because Trig wouldn’t exist.
P.P.P.P.P.S. Iowahawk: An Analysis of the Wonkette-Trig Palin Controversy, In Terms a Wonkette Reader Can Understand.