Mark “Maxi” Shields Lectures Palin

RUSH: Here’s Mark ‘Maxi’ Shields appearing on the PBS coverage of the Republican convention, talking about Sarah Palin.

SHIELDS: By accepting John McCain’s offer, she guaranteed that her daughter would be known globally as the best known 17-year-old pregnant unwed teenager in the world. That would not have been the case if Sarah Palin had said to John McCain, ‘Thanks, but no thanks, John. This is a private time for my daughter, an important and — and terribly difficult time in her life.’ I really can only imagine the painful time that that girl is going through right now.

RUSH: Oh, yes.

SHIELDS: Not simply by being known, uhhh, and introduced to the nation this way, but also being conflicted in part by what her pregnancy could do to her mother’s career and all the rest of it.

RUSH: Ohhh! I tell you, it just continues to get worse and more over the top. Here is a man, Mark Shields — liberal in good standing — demonstrating for one and all that he doesn’t know what he is talking about. He has no clue how people like Sarah Palin and her family think, and he never will. I don’t know where to start for this. Private time for my daughter, an important and terribly difficult time. Oh, yeah. Pregnancy is such a terrible thing; it is such a rotten thing. Mature people deal with these things as they happen, and families that are born and contained by love deal with it! Love I think is even a concept foreign to these people. ‘I can really only imagine…’ Like he really has sympathy.

‘I can really only imagine the painful time that the girl is going through right now, not simply by being known and introduced to the nation this way.’ Hey! Thanks to people like you, Mr. Shields. Thanks to people like you, who are demanding paternity tests of the McCain campaign. Thanks to people like you who are trying to uncover every bit of lying dirt you can find, and then you blame it on what? Poor girl having to go through all this? Leave her alone! She’s a kid! I thought the children of political candidates were off-limits, as in Chelsea Rodham Clinton. And ‘also conflicted in part by what her pregnancy could do to her mother’s career.’ Let me tell you something. This is what you really don’t get, Mark. This woman, Sarah Palin, has more guts and more courage and more love than I think you can possibly understand because she knows she’s not going to let that girl suffer. She’s not going to let that girl go through a lifelong question of whether or not she harmed her mother’s career. It’s not going to be a factor. Don’t worry about it. You can trust me, Mark.