Trouble in Palin's Paridise: Bristol and Levi split up

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Come on, you knew it was gonna happen, right? You knew all the happy talk was a sham, a cover story, likely driven by political considerations, all to make Sarah look good, all to make it seem as if Palin's world, Wasilla, was a sort of Norman Rockwell paradise, a world where kids make mistakes but are born again, and forgiven when they have the right connections, a world of such entrenched family values as to please any hardcore right-winger, praise be to all things Palin.

Well... yeah.

It is being reported that Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston, the much-ballyhooed couple at the GOP convention last year, the couple that received such enthusiastic applause, have broken up:

Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter Bristol has reportedly broken off her engagement with Levi Johnston, the father of her 2-month-old son Tripp. It's surprising because in an interview just last month with FOX's Gretta Van Susteren, Bristol said the 19-year-old Levi is a hands-on dad and that they planned on marrying after finishing their education.

But in a new interview with Star Magazine, Levi's sister Mercede Johnston says Bristol actually broke up with Levi more than a month ago, is not attending school and rarely lets her baby daddy see their young son. Mercede also says Bristol even told him that she hates him and, when she learned she was pregnant, wished the baby wasn't his.

Mercede told Star: "Bristol's just crazy. That's the nicest way I can put it. She and Levi actually broke up a while ago!"

Apparently, Levi is also far from being a hands-on dad. Said Mercede: "Levi tries to visit Tripp every single day, but Bristol makes it nearly impossible for him. She tells him he can't take the baby to our house because she doesn't want him around 'white trash.' She treats him so badly!"

Say it ain't so!

Now, look, I'm trying my best not to succumb to Schadenfreude. I'm trying not to let any partisan sentiments -- what with my intense dislike of all things Palin -- get in the way of looking at this fairly. It's not like I'm happy that yet another "family" is broken, after all, and it's not like I don't feel for the kid.

But... well, you know. It was all such a pathetic farce, such transparent manipulation on the part of Palin and the Republicans. Looking at it that way, that is, as the way it really was, it's hard not to think of this whole sad, sorry affair as yet another case of the inevitable breaking through the facade of right-wing moralism and hypocrisy.

In other words, it's all just more of the same. And one can't help but find that somehow amusing.