Sean Hannity decided to have disgraced former representative, Mark Foley, on his show to discuss the Anthony Weiner non-sex “scandal”. Foley, who was forced to resign after sending sexually explicit messages to underage congressional pages, told Hannity that it should not be illegal to send such messages to minors (via Think Progress):

This is really amazing, especially since Foley was such a crusader on stopping child pornography.

It also shows how Fox views Weinergate. Foley was involved in extremely sexual exchanges with children under the age of 18. Not only that, these were children sent to our nation’s capital to be taken care of by one of our branches of government. Foley betrayed the trust of these children and of our nation when he decided to pursue these children. And while there are reports that Weiner did engage in his naughty talk with a 17 year old, what Foley did was much worse, but not as bad as the cover-up.

Foley’s activities were known about by Republicans on Capital Hill for years. Even then majority leader John Boehner and then-speaker Dennis Hassert admitted to knowing about Foley’s problem at least a year before it was made public. The two most powerful members of the House of Representatives didn’t want to protect the children in their charge – they wanted to protect the predator in their caucus.

And Foley’s activities were reported long before that:

On October 9, The Washington Post reported that in 2000, a former page showed Kolbe messages from Foley that made the page feel uncomfortable. According to The Washington Post, these messages were sexually explicit, a characterization that Kolbe’s press secretary denied. The Washington Post reported that Kolbe confronted Foley about the messages. Kolbe’s press secretary said that unspecified “corrective action” was taken.[74] Kolbe later said that the former page, whom Kolbe had sponsored, told him of a “creepy” e-mail from Foley, but did not show it to him. Kolbe said that, through his staff, he passed the complaint on to Trandahl and to Foley’s office. Kolbe said that he did not confront Foley about the matter, and that he recalled that the incident had taken place later than 2000.[75]

Another page, Matthew Loraditch, stated that when he served in 2001 pages had been warned to “watch out for Congressman Mark Foley,” [79] though he later softened his description of the warning.[80]

Newsweek Magazine reported that in 2002 or 2003, Foley showed up at the pages’ dormitory after the 10 P.M. curfew, apparently drunk, and attempted to enter the building. He was reportedly turned away by a security guard. Newsweek stated that Trandahl notified Fordham (then Foley’s Chief of Staff and later Congressman Tom Reynolds’ chief of staff), and that Fordham in turn contacted Scott B. Palmer, Hastert’s chief of staff, describing Foley’s behavior generally but not mentioning the incident at the pages’ dormitory. This account further stated that Fordham followed up a couple of days later with Palmer, who replied that he had “informed the Speaker” and “dealt with it” by talking to Foley directly.[81]

Yet Congress continued to let this predator go unchecked in Congress. They didn’t even bat an eye at it. And four years before being forced out, Foley was attempting to move beyond the sexually explicit messages only. On top of that, the Speaker of the House knew about it and did NOTHING!

So Anthony Weiner is nothing like Mark Foley. Mark Foley was much worse, and given the fact that Congress failed to act against Foley for years means the calls for Weiner’s resignation should stop. I’m sorry, but if people think Weiner should resign over what he did, then John Boehner needs to resign over his ignoring and enabling of a much more serious child predator.