Beyond the Pale on Palin

ST. PAUL — Flipping on the WashingtonPost.com site this morning, I was appalled to read “On-Faith” columnist Sally Quinn’s post regarding the pregnancy of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) young daughter. Quinn, a self-described “Washington Insider,” describes how she was shocked and then angered that John McCain would “[choose] a running mate simply because she is a woman and one who appealed to the Republican’s [sic] conservative evangelical base.” Where to begin?

Does Quinn offer any proof that Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) chose Palin simply because she is a woman — other than her opinion? No. I would have thought the liberal establishment, long advocating equal rights and equal protection, would be thrilled by the choice of an intelligent woman who is a rising political star. I suspect this only applies if one is a liberal, rather than conservative woman.

Next, Quinn bemoans that McCain chose a woman who appealed to the Republicans’ conservative evangelical base. And Sen. Barack Obama’s (Ill.) selection of Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.) to be his running mate was not done to appease a constituency of the Democratic Party? Again, when Republicans appeal to their political base, this is somehow unacceptable, but it’s expected and acceptable when Democratic politicians undertake the same political calculus?

No, Quinn saved her best nonsense for the following paragraph of her post this morning. Here, she sniffs that: “Now we learn that the 17-year-old daughter [of Gov. Palin] is pregnant … This may be a hard one for the Republican conservative family-values crowd to swallow.” I find the arrogance and condescension of Quinn’s statement to be nothing short of shocking.

Politicians have long attacked each other’s policies or character, but the privacy of the children of politicians has always been respected. Until now. Now, Quinn takes a cheap political shot to score points not at the governor but at a 17-year-old girl who has decided to marry her boyfriend and the father of her child. Perhaps elitists such as Ms. Quinn can’t realize that this is a decision many families across the country must grapple with that boils down to this: Shall the family keep the child, put the child up for adoption or terminate the pregnancy?

For my part, the “Republican conservative family-values crowd” would applaud the decision for a young couple to marry and not kill the life of an innocent unborn child. Would Quinn and her supporters applaud killing the unborn child so as not to make “a mistake?”

Take your shots at Palin and her record, Ms. Quinn. She is a public official and used to tough-gloves treatment from pot-shot takers such as yourself seeking political points and attention. Attacking a 17-year-old girl who has make a personal decision is off-limits, out of bounds and well beneath the dignity of one who purports to write a column on faith to educate her readers.