Strap on your seatbelts, folks! You’re about to board the Sarah Palin Hypocrite Coaster. You must be this obtuse to ride.

As a former TV writer and political editor of National Lampoon, I don’t know if there’s anything off-limits when satirizing, though one would hope those commanding the pen have some inkling of what satire means before they take to the page. Joking isn’t necessarily satire. I’ve heard a lot of offensive jokes that don’t fall within an ironic mile from satire. But for argument’s sake, let’s say Limbaugh was using satire to rip into Emanuel.

My argument here isn’t with Limbaugh as much as it is with Palin’s selective righteous indignation. If I have this right, the former governor feels Emanuel’s crude colloquial usage of the word "retard" in a private meeting is a "...slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities – and the people who love them," but if used satirically over the radio to millions of listeners to describe Emanuel, liberal groups and mental health advocates, it's okey-dokey.

Okay, governor, let’s try this one out.

You know what’s retarded? Claiming you know foreign policy because "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska." You know what else is retarded? Telling David Letterman that a joking reference to your daughter is out of bounds but defending Rush Limbaugh’s reference to people (including mental health advocates) as retards who were attending a retarded summit. That’s real retarded. Almost as retarded as quitting half way through your governorship and saying you’re not quitting but that "I know when it's time to pass the ball for victory." But not as retarded as saying Rush Limbaugh - who called people "retarded" - was only quoting Emanuel – who was calling a proposal "retarded" - when the only words of Emanuel he "quoted" were "f-ing retarded." You know how retarded that is? It’s like saying "four score and seven disabled children should be shot and dismembered" and then saying you were just quoting the Gettysburg address. Retarded? Sure. But you know who is the biggest retard? The hypocritical retard who deceitfully uses her own down syndrome baby as a political brickbat to bash her opponents, but allows the same child and all the other of "God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities" to be slurred to millions of Americans by the most retarded retard on the radio. A politically opportunistic retard who puts a pompous retard of a talk show host above her own special needs child. That, ladies and gentleman, is not only f’-ing retarded. It is terribly and incredibly sad.

So...whataya think, Sarah? I’m only quoting Emanuel. Pretty satirical, huh?

Steve Young blogs at steveyoungonpolitics.com