The Johnstons don't help their case on Larry King

Levi Johnston's much-hyped appearance on CNN's Larry King show last night didn't seem to do much to help his case. Here's an excerpt of the dialog from the first segment of King's show:

King: Do you have a lawyer?

Levi: No.

King: Why Not? [...] Why wouldn't you hire a lawyer to fight for your rights as a father?

Levi: We're not in a big fight with the Palins. I mean... I still like the family very much. I think we can work things out. I don't think either one of us wants to go to the lawyers and fight things out.

King: Why can't you take your baby - it's your baby - Why can't you take your baby for a weekend?

Levi: I don't know.

King: But you're not interested in finding out legally why you can't.

Levi: If it keeps going like this, I think we're going to have to.

[Commercial Break]

After the break, Levi admits that he had not been honest with King and does indeed have a lawyer. In the next segment, Levi is joined by his mother Sherry and his sister Mercede:

King: Now he says you do have a lawyer.

Sherry: Yes, we do.

King: Don't you think you should now press for his rights as a father?

Sherry: Well, that is what we're going to have to do next. We were just hoping that we wouldn't have to. We really didn't want to have to go this way. We were hoping that we could all come to an agreement and all get together and be there for Tripp.

King: Is the lawyer going to file charges?

Sherry: We haven't got that far yet.

King: Levi, do you and Bristol have a formal child custody agreement? It's our understanding that in Alaska both parents have equal rights regarding custody unless a court orders it otherwise.

Levi: No, we...

King: So according to the law, you and Bristol have the same rights to Tripp.

Levi: Right. No, we don't have anything like that. We haven't went to court or done anything at all.

King: Why not, Mercede, why not?

Mercede: I don't know. I don't know. I hope it happens soon, to be honest. I want that baby in my life as much as he does.

King: Are you hesitant to force action? Do you feel that you're at the wrath of the governor or not?

Sherry: Yeah, well we don't want to... We want to keep this on the lowdown and not stir trouble, but obviously if things don't change, that's our next action when we get back, to go forward with that I guess.

King: Because you have every right to go forward.

Never mind that Lewd Larry is a sleazebag to ask some of the intimate questions he did. Let yourself get over King's outlandish comment to Levi that he isn't doing other interviews. And don't even wince over Levi's ridiculous boast that he's "a gentleman" who doesn't "kiss and tell" when that's all he's been doing lately. Don't let your blood boil over King inserting himself into a unfortunate situation involving the two families by pushing the Johnstons to go all litigious on the Palins. Here's what is most significant about this sordid slab of television at its worst: Denying that he has a lawyer - and then later admitting that he has retained a lawyer after all - doesn't speak well for Levi's veracity on anything that he has said on television or in the tabloids.

Equally significant is this from one of Levi's friends:

"If Levi could get a million bucks, it would be worth telling all he really knows."

Yeah, tell lies and go for the quick and dirty money. That's just the sort of dad every mother wants to have in her child's life, isn't it?

Update: Despite all the hype, Lewd Larry's ratings were down last night compared to his numbers for the previous night. Perhaps what used to be the private lives of two teenagers has reached the TMI threshold for most Americans.

- JP