Sarah Palin has graciously accepted David Letterman's long-delayed apology.

The Alaska governor, in a statement issued Tuesday, accepted his apology "on behalf of all young women, like my daughters, who hope men who 'joke' about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve."

God bless her.

This is what should have happened in the first place. This should have been totally a one-day story. Dave Letterman makes an inexcusable joke, is called on it and apologizes for it. End of story.

Can I let you in on a secret? I hate the whole thing. I hate the joke first of all. Who jokes about 14-year-old or 18-year-old girls like that?

I hate Dave's first non-apology even more. I mean how can a man as rich, famous and successful as David Letterman start complaining about the damage to his reputation?

"We were, as we often do, making jokes about people in the news and we made some jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter (Bristol) ... and now they're upset with me," Letterman said on his June 10 show. "These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl. ... Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes. Did I suggest that it was OK for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No."

I hate the fact that when called on his joke, Dave Letterman took cheap shots, asking, "Why didn't Alex Rodriguez complain?" Well, Dave, maybe because you didn't suggest to Alex that somebody had quickie public sex with his 14-year-old (or 18-year old) daughter in the seventh inning of a Yankee game.

If I were the mother of Bristol or Willow, I would have been at least as fierce as Sarah Palin in demanding an apology to my daughters.

But I hate the fact that it took a grievance campaign, including the threat of CBS sponsors, to get Dave Letterman, that Midwest hero, to do the decent thing.

What is this whole thing about? OK, I get the "it's open season on conservative woman" thing. Yes, as someone who has been close to Carrie Prejean, I do get that.

But I hate the politicization of common decency, nonetheless. I hate the whole culture of complaint.

Here's the perverse good news. Maybe the thing that turned Dave Letterman to decency was not the threats to his income. Maybe it was his Midwestern mom. According to news reports, Dave said he got a call from his mother earlier in the day telling him she was siding with Palin.

Here's the larger story: There's something precious that needs to be protected and defended here -- the idea that there is something called "common decency," something that is above and apart from politics.

I hate the idea that the only way to defend common decency is to politicize it, to make it about attacks on conservative women.

Even if it's true, I still hate that truth. I fight against it.

Is there still not a core to the American way of life that has nothing to do with whether you like or don't like Sarah Palin, whether you support or oppose a political party, or even whether you support or oppose abortion or gay marriage? Is there not a sense deep down, way out of view of the cable TV shows that we share some core values, including, "You don't go after kids like that on national TV. Being 18 is no excuse."

Don't we all believe that?

Do we?