The Washington Post’s Sally Quinn: “One of the reasons, Palin said, was because they were upset that their 14-month-old brother Trig, who has Down Syndrome, was ‘mocked and ridiculed by some pretty mean spirited adults.’ I’d like to know the names of those mean-spirited adults who mocked and ridiculed her special needs child. I don’t believe it for a second.”

Perhaps the kindest response I can make is that not everyone is as nice as you, Ms. Quinn*.

There’s this web site called “Google,” Ms. Quinn, and it can be quite helpful in circumstances like these. You type in “Trig Palin mockery” and you’ll find examples and discussion of photoshops of Trig Palin here, here, here (contending Palin “fed the beast with her stupid anger”) and here and here, including a faux Planned Parenthood ad featuring Trig and a wire hanger with the label “Better Luck Next Time.” There are terrible, cold-hearted people in this world, Ms. Quinn, and it’s hard not to empathize with Sarah Palin’s outrage, and perhaps the calculation that this treatment of her children was too high a price to pay to remain in the spotlight.

It’s easier to “not believe it for a second” when you also refuse to “look for it for a minute.”

* When I read Quinn write, “Palin knew that Letterman was making a joke about Bristol, but she still dragged poor Willow into the mud as well,” I conclude, “Maybe you’re not so nice, after all.”