The chairman of the Republican party has stepped into the debate between Sarah Palin and David Letterman.

Friday, Michael Steele suggested a boycott of Letterman's late night talk show, calling his jokes about Palin's daughter "crude, thoughtless and tacky."

Palin's family took a trip to New York recently, after which Letterman joked on his show that while there, Palin's daughter was "knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

The joke outraged Gov. Palin and the daughter at that game-- 14-year-old Willow.

Click play for analysis from family therapist Linda Mintle, following this report.

Palin called Letterman's jokes "sexually-perverted comments" that "contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men."

In an attempted apology, Letterman told his audience he was not talking about 14-year old Willow, but Palin's 18-year-old daughter Bristol.

Letterman has since said that he "probably" regrets saying the joke.

"There are thousands of jokes I regret telling on this program," he said.  "Would I do anything to advocate or contribute to underage sexual abuse or misconduct?  Absolutely not."

In an interview  with The Today Show, Palin called on Americans to stand up to this kind of perverse humor.

She also said Letterman didn't need to apologize to her, but to all young girls.

"I would like to see him apologize to young women across the country for contributing to kind of that thread that is throughout our culture that makes it sound like it is okay to talk about young girls in that way," she said. "It's not cool. It's not funny."