Levi's Family Fears Lack Of Access To Baby

Levi Johnston, the teenage father of Sarah Palin's grandson, accuses Palin and her family of spreading lies about him and his family and keeping him from spending time alone with his three-month-old son, Tripp.

In an interview with Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez, Levi also offers a look at his relationship, past and present, with Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol, his ex-fiancée and Tripp's mother. Among other things, Levi asserts Bristol is being "short" with him when he speaks with her these days.

And Levi's mother, Sherry Johnston, was very candid and emotional about her family's concerns that the Palins will limit their time with Tripp -- so much so that, Rodriguez says, they want a pow-wow with the Palins to work out a custody arrangement. Sherry admitted she's "begging" the Palins to be fair.

In a perfect world, Sherry told Rodriguez, "Everything will be reconciled. (I hope) we can get together, if for no other reason, (than) for Tripp. He deserves to know both grandmas and grandpas, and aunts and uncles. And mom and dad.

"I had a really rough summer," Sherry said, as she began to cry, "and he was what kept me going. Just waiting for him."

Wiping tears from her eyes, Sherry continued, "I mean, and Bristol and I talked about it a lot. Just like, 'Well, you'll have Tripp soon. And he'll be there for you." '

"You're still waiting"? Rodriguez asked.

"I'm hoping," Sherry responded. After a pause, she added, "I'm begging."

Levi says things began to get rocky in his relationship with Bristol when Sarah Palin was named as John McCain's running mate on the Republican presidential ticket last fall.

"It started going downhill a little bit,' Levi says, "and we just started fighting, and things weren't working out. ... Their attitudes changed. ... We just weren't seeing eye-to-eye with each other anymore. And I didn't like it. And I thought it'd be best that we-- we both did -- break up for a little bit and see what happens. ... We just couldn't, like, have a conversation without fighting, I guess, anymore. It was-- it was just getting really bad.

"We talk every day, every other day." And the conversations are "real short. You know, I call her to see -- see how my baby's doing. That kind of thing. But we don't really sit there and talk. Like, 'How are you -- how you been?' I mean, she's real short with me."