Letterman Apologizes to Wife, Staffers...and Sarah Palin? Again?

David Letterman's "Forgive Me For I Have Sinned" tour took an interesting turn Monday evening when the "Late Show" host spent part of his program making fun of the controversy surrounding his extra-marital affairs while also apologizing to his wife, the female staffers involved, and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

In his opening monologue, Letterman joked:

There's a possibility that I'll be the first talk show host impeached. It's Fall here in New York City, and I spent the whole weekend raking my hate mail.

Later, he awkwardly tried to explain his predicament while apologizing to those he's hurt...oddly including Palin (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript):

I wasn't going to talk about it anymore, but it seems like people want to talk about it. And when you're blackmailed, it's a crime and you are a victim. It's felony extortion is what it is. And it's a nasty thing to do to people. Now being a victim, and if you happen to, your behavior is responsible for hurting people, that's a separate part of the equation. And it did not occur to me last week when I was discussing having had sex with women who worked on this show, that then what would happen is reporters and newspaper people and radio and TV would start hounding the staff and saying, "What do you say, are you, and this and that." It was very, very unpleasant and I would just like to set the record straight, no, I'm not having sex with these women, those episodes are in the past. So my apologies to subjecting them to that vulnerability. [...]

The other thing is, my wife Regina, she has been horribly hurt by my behavior. And, when something happens like that, if you hurt a person and it's your responsibility, you try to fix it. And at that point, there's only two things that can happen: either you're going to make some progress and get it fixed, or you're going to fall short and perhaps not get it fixed. So, let me tell you folks, I got my work cut out for me. [...]

And now, also, because what can it hurt, once again I would like to apologize to the former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin. I'm terribly, terribly sorry.

What? Why throw that in?

For those that have forgotten, Letterman in June made some really disgusting remarks about Palin and her daughter that got him in a lot of trouble. Why he decided to revisit this again seems baffling unless he's just trying to score some points with conservatives.

That said, those interested can view his opening monologue wherein he awkwardly tried to make light of his predicament: