Citizen Chelsea Clinton had a baby last week. A girl. A New York Post headline heralded the arrival with a question: Another liberal crybaby for Dem Clintons?

Tasteless, but clever, don’t you think? We snicker (or not) and move on to feeding the kids, keeping an eye on prices at the pump.

Here’s the question: How long before Post editors extend an apology to the first-time mother? In New York? At least not until well after Derek Jeter’s deification by Popes Benedict and Francis.

In Kentucky, crybaby is a far more serious matter. The idea made into a cartoon of a ball coach as crybaby, well, this rates up there with War On Coal and The Affordable Care Act. The wait for apology might be, oh, one news cycle.

A Louisville Courier-Journal’s executive editor hurried forth to apologize to University of Kentucky ball coach John Calipari the other day because of a cartoon on front of the newspaper’s sports section.

In context of a hotly contested political season in Kentucky, I am among those not amused, but puzzled, disappointed and concerned that head of a media outlet took time to genuflect to a college ball coach.

√ Puzzled. Why a metropolitan media outlet would put its reputation for being nonpartisan at risk with a grandstand play that reflects weakness, expediency and message to staff – leaving an employee hung out to dry.

√ Disappointed. A paragon of print journalism apologizes for a cartoon sets a precedent. Seems to me, the newspaper is now obligated to apologize to politician Mitch McConnell and a host of other politicos who have been lampooned often and more outrageously than one depicting Calipari as crybaby.

√ Disappointed. The newspaper’s UK beat writer Kyle Tucker and columnist Tim Sullivan hid, then surfaced as apologists. To keep their jobs?

√ Concerned. The Courier-Journal’s apology to a ball coach, coupled with the newspaper’s sagging circulation, makes us wonder – is this a prelude to our state Old Faithful newspaper headed the way of the New Orleans Times-Picayune (become a tri-weekly in June 2013)? Turning its profit emphasis to web site news?

THEN COMES THE IRONY

Ironically and rhetorically ‘what’s the big deal?’, sports news stories this calendar year alone affirm the Courier-Journal’s cartoonist depiction of Calipari as a crybaby.

√ April 7, ex-UConn coach Jim Calhoun told a reporter “The one thing about John, John can become, you know, a bulls—-er. … John kind of knows that. At least I think he knows that.”

Postscript: Calhoun also said, “H(Calipari’s) way, one-and-done, most institutions are not going to allow you to do what Kentucky does.”

√ August 22, Calipari was guest on WFAN radio in New York. After leaving the studio, Calipari called back as John in Kentucky although he was in fact, downstairs, to complain about Mike Francesa’s assertion “Cal is not a great Xs & Os coach.”

√ September 17, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim revealed that earlier this year, Calipari complained to him that Mike Krzyzewski was getting unfair access to recruits by coaching Team USA. In a marvelous understatement, Boeheim said Calipari was being ‘a little bit disingenuous.’

These instances, coupled with Calipari’s frequently seen whining to officials during games (ejected at South Carolina March 1), show Kentucky’s coach is exactly as he was lampooned by the Courier-Journal guy. Seems the cartoonist is the only non-villain in this entire teapot tempest.

Fall out? The Courier-Journal has kneeled to The Man in Kentucky. The newspaper has at the least earned reader suspicion of being a Calipari house organ. Meanwhile, Calipari in Kentucky is already showered with enough hero worship to get himself elected Senate Majority Leader ahead of McConnell. And, his grip on media is even tighter.

Leaves one to wonder what else could this man have to whine about?

Meanwhile, we will keep a close eye out for the New York Post’s next edition and, perhaps one or two after that, for its apology to the new mother in its midst.

BOTTOM LINE

With acknowledgement to the reasonable-minded centrists in Big Blue Nation, I like to pull up an e-mail received awhile ago because it reflects to a tee, my own.

“I’m one of those rare UK athletic fans who went to school there, got a degree. Too many people care only about wins, not about the coach, the players and certainly not the university. I wear my UK ring every day. I am a fan of the school, not the athletic programs. For people who love football and basketball but not the institution, I have only contempt.”

And so it goes.