Bristol Palin calls Baby Daddy Levi 'white trash'

Well, this little bit of tabloid gossip is helpful, isn't it? A source says Bristol broke up with the teenage sperm donor Levi "Sex on Skates" Johnston two months ago, won't even let him see the fruit of his loins, and has denounced the entire Johnston family as "white trash."

I love Sarah Palin, but Bristol's judgment is questionable. Really, Bristol: What do you expect people to call a girl who gets herself knocked up by white trash? This does not reflect favorably on you.

UPDATE: Noting the negativity of some of the comments, but didn't realized I'd been linked on this by Videmus Omnia at Conservatives4Palin:

As a final note, I am very disappointed in our friend R. S. McCain. Do all McCains like to stick the knife into Palins when their backs are turned?

Sorry, I'm not wired that way. I support Sarah Palin. But if Bristol Palin is conducting herself in such a hideous manner, I'm not going to turn a blind eye and pretend it's not happening. I've got three teenagers of my own, remember, and if they act disgracefully, my judgment would be quite harsh indeed.

Read what I wrote about the role of lax discipline in the apparent decline of evangelical churches. I am not a violent or brutal person, but neither do I believe that indulgent condescension is an appropriate way to instill character in the young. In sharing some unsavory details of my own tragic adolescence, I should hope I made it clear that I understand the potentially disastrous consequences of wrong choices and bad companionship.

It is not kindness to a wayward child to shelter and protect them when they are doing the wrong thing. While the full circumstances of the situation are of course not known to us, doesn't it seem that Bristol is going out of her way to bring shame and disgrace to her parents? And what about Levi Johnston, the hockey stud? Am I the only one who thinks that his role in all this has been of a selfish, shallow cad?

I would call to your attention the difference between Michael Reagan, older son that Ronald Reagan adopted with his first wife, Jane Wyman, and Ron Jr., the natural son of Reagan's second marriage to Nancy. If you talk to people who knew the family, the cause of the difference between the two sons is obvious.

As a boy, Michael felt somewhat "second best," and had a deep hunger to win his father's admiration and acceptance. Michael went through some wild years, but in his maturity, he was a respectful, dutiful son. By contrast -- and Reagan admitted this privately to friends -- Ron Jr. was treated with too much favoritism as a child, and thus grew up arrogant and disrespectful.

A child's misconduct always reflects poorly on the family. I'm sure that Bristol is breaking her parents' hearts by her shoddy behavior. But I'm thinking back to some TV interview Bristol did, and if she demonstrated an attitude of humility and remorse, it didn't stick in my mind.

Why would anyone think it was helpful -- to her, to her parents, to the GOP or to the conservative cause -- for conservatives to pretend that everything with Bristol is just hunky-dory? If my kid was acting like that, would a true friend ignore it?

And since Videmus Omnia brings up the subject of Crazy Cousin John, how do you think his daughter Meghan got such an impudent attitude? Way back years ago, when I was a single fellow, there was a type of girl I labeled "Daddy's Little Darling."

Maybe some of y'all know the type -- snooty, stuck-up, cliqueish, insufferable demanding, with a high-handed and disdainful way of dealing with people beneath her status, having a self-important attitude.

Once, after I'd been covering sports in Calhoun, Ga., a few years, I was at the season-opening high school football game. Before the game, I was talking to a group of non-football athletes -- baseball, basketball, wrestling -- who were hanging out by the end zone. This girl comes walking up, apparently attracted magnetically to a cluster of high-status students.

So she managed to find an opportunity to introduce herself, "I'm Heather So-and-So." Yes, OK, fine nice to meet you, but there wasn't any recognition on my part, because the only kids I knew were the ones who played sports. Seeing that I wasn't impressed, the girl then repeated her name, "Heather So-and-So. My dad is Jim So-and-So, he owns So-and-So Carpet Outlet."

If that wasn't the tackiest thing I'd ever heard! But that's the "Daddy's Little Darling" attitude, and it's always a source of misery. Whether that has anything to do with the original subject from which I have sadly digressed, you be the judge.