Dear Sarah Palin: I'll respect your daughter's privacy when you respect my privacy

From earlier today:

Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy, as has always been the tradition of children of candidates," the Palin family statement concluded.

The campaign is providing no more details about the father, including his last name and age.

Palin was refusing to speak to the press about it today.

"We're asking the media to respect a person's privacy," said Maria Comella, Palin's campaign spokesman.

I'm not sure we've seen the last of the Palin pregnancy story. Some of you want to take the high road. Even MathMan teased me about muckraking. That's okay. I think I've always been pretty good about sticking to the issues. I make no secret of my partisan background and my liberal beliefs. I typically try to present how the issues apply to real life.

So pardon me if I think this is a big deal. But for me, this is a big deal. Yes, it's personal. This is every bible thumping, panty-sniffing hypocrite who ever called me slut when they were out getting knocked up at 16 while I managed to fuck my way through high school and still didn't get knocked up until college. At which point I did exercise my right to choose (I chose to terminate) because I was not in a position to have or raise a child.

This is personal because women like me are scorned by women like Sarah Palin and her holier than thou approach to public policy. This is personal because I'm willing to support Bristol Palin's right to choose, but Sarah Palin would never support my daughter's right to choose, so yeah - this is personal.

And it's speculative. And it's questioning what we're being told because you know what? Something still doesn't seem right. Do you really need me to go over all the times we've been told to shut up and sit down and we did and now we wished we hadn't?

The Iraq War? The appointments of Alito and Roberts to the Supreme Court? No Child Left Behind? The investigation into Dubya's national guard service? The swiftboating of John Kerry? I'm sure you can fill in many more.

We can sit down and shut up and watch another election go to the Republicans. It's lovely to stand on the high road and watch our nation crumble, isn't it?

I'd almost decided to drop this story until I read this from Gryphen. I followed the links and I clicked on the pictures to see the comments. At first I was confused. Who was the young woman holding the baby in those pictures? Then I clicked on the picture labeled my big brother and best friend. There he is - Levi. Identified by name.

So the mystery deepens. In those pictures with the newborn, Sarah Palin looks fantastic. When I had Cupcake, she came out like those dream births in the birthing videos. MathMan likes to joke how I didn't even muss my lipstick. But I can tell you this, that picture of Palin in the shorts and the hoodie? Wow. Enviable. I mean her legs don't look the slightest bit swollen. But who am I to say? I'm not a medical professional.

Which brings me to my last point - this could easily be laid to rest by the Palins. Of course it's insulting to be asked to prove that Trig is the son of Sarah and Todd, but for the sake of the campaign, I would think they would be trotting out that evidence immediately to shut me and my low-roader pals the hell up.

They want this story to go away? They have to power to make it happen.

UPDATE - Okay, the link to the myspace page is now private. I have the screen shots saved. If you want to see them, you can email me at dcup84 at gmail dot com.