I’ve posted plenty of negative comments about the former half-term Alaska governor, and one-time Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Does she deserve the beating she’s getting over her son’s treatment of a family pet?

I don’t believe so.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/sarah-palin-peta-criticism-113928.html?hp=l1_3

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has criticized Palin because her son, Trig, is using the dog as a step-stool. Why, it’s just cruel, PETA says. Palin should teach her son how to treat animals. It’s irresponsible of her to allow young Trig to brutalize the family pet.

“It’s odd that anyone — let alone a mother — would find it appropriate to post such a thing, with no apparent sympathy for the dog in the photo,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement to POLITICO.

Come on.

Trig has been diagnosed with Down syndrome. He’s a special needs child. What’s more — and perhaps this is most critical — he is a child. A boy.

I posted some commentary on this blog how right-wingers should refrain from criticizing President Obama’s daughters. The kids are off limits.

The same rule ought to apply to Trig Palin.

When I first heard of this dust-up my thoughts turned immediately to President Lyndon Johnson’s (in)famous incident in which he lifted his beagles — Him and Her — off the ground by their ears. PETA would have raised a lot of hell back then as well. If memory serves, the pooches enjoyed long lives after LBJ hoisted them by their ears.

Sarah Palin continues to be a prime target for criticism almost every time she opens her mouth. But on this issue? Leave her son alone.