While discussing the scandal surrounding former Republican congressman Mark Foley during the October 11 broadcast of Jon Caldara's show on Newsradio 850 KOA, guest and right-wing pundit Ann Coulter asserted that Democrats called for investigations because House Republicans were not “wiretapping” Foley “because he was gay”; that Democrats “only want to wiretap the gay guys”; and that “Democrats will talk about anything, maybe even viciously attack gays, in order to not talk about national security.”

Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress on September 29 after ABC News confronted him with evidence that he had engaged in inappropriate email and instant message conversations with teenage male congressional pages. Following his resignation, questions quickly surfaced about when the House Republican leadership learned of Foley's emails. Media Matters for America has noted that Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) reportedly knew of emails Foley allegedly sent to a 16-year-old former page long before Foley resigned from Congress, but took little or no action.

Coulter asserted that Democrats were calling for a congressional investigation into the Foley scandal because Foley is gay. Coulter stated that Democrats “want congressional investigations because ... he [Foley] was gay” and that “it was Democrats who turned this into a partisan issue by saying, 'Those Republicans, they should have known, it was a gay man.' ”

Coulter said, “I think they've officially lost their minds when they want congressional investigations because the House Republicans were not wiretapping, listening to the cell-phone calls, and reading the emails of a guy, a congressman, because he was gay. And he asked a page what he wanted for his birthday.” Coulter later added, “I mean, the whole lesson of this is, the Democrats will talk about anything, maybe even viciously attack gays, in order to not talk about national security.”

A resolution and statement introduced by House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA) on September 29 calling for a House Ethics Committee investigation said nothing about Foley's sexual orientation and was centered on concern for the protection of Page School participants. Her statement about the resolution noted, “The Page School is a national treasure, and the children who attend it and work in the Congress are our special trust. Members of Congress have a responsibility to protect their employees, especially young pages who serve this institution.” The statement did not mention that Foley is gay.

Rather, the resolution asked the committee to “expeditiously determine the facts connected with Representative Foley's conduct and the response [by GOP leadership]” and to determine “when the emails were sent, who knew of the emails, whether there was a pattern of inappropriate activity by Mr. Foley involving email or other contacts with pages or former pages, when the Republican leadership was notified, and what corrective action was taken once officials learned of any improper activity.” The resolution passed unanimously.

Further, Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) said the ethics committee investigation was called for because “basically nothing was done except that Foley was warned,” according to an October 1 Associated Press article. According to the article, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) “faulted the House GOP leadership for not acting sooner,” noting that Murtha said, " 'We have an obligation to protect these young pages. ... It really makes me nervous that they might have tried to cover this up'."

From the October 11 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Jon Caldara Show:

CALDARA: Hey, let's get this started, because when the Foley thing -- I want to talk to you about Korea, but before that -- when the Foley thing broke, you know, immediately I thought of all the obscene instant messages that you and I have during this thing. And I realized, you know, if I were to release those how remarkably good it would be for my career and how very, very bad it would be for you. And I was -- you know, so if you want to talk money, we can talk money. However you want to handle it.

COULTER: Well, based on the Democrats' recent moralizing, I think they only want to wiretap the gay guys. So I think we'd be OK.

[...]

COULTER: I think they've officially lost their minds when they want congressional investigations because the House Republicans were not wiretapping, listening to the cell phone calls, and reading the emails of a guy, a congressman, because he was gay. And he asked a page what he wanted for his birthday. That's the corpus delicti.

[...]

COULTER: I think there are only two who got, whom we have the IM's for. Although I have to say, I have not been following this particular Democrat red herring probably as closely as I should. I mean, the whole lesson of this is, the Democrats will talk about anything, maybe even viciously attack gays, in order to not talk about national security.

[...]

COULTER: How else do you think the Republican Party could indicate that it's wrong, other than the party who was caught resigning within 30 seconds and being on suicide watch for the rest of the year? What else are you calling for here? I think we've indicated that --

CALDARA: Let's try this one --

COULTER: Foley didn't come out and say he's saving the Constitution, he didn't run for re-election, he didn't turn his back on the House floor as they had to censure him. We didn't have to, you know, remove him from office --

CALDARA: Let's see when, when --

COULTER: It was Democrats who turned this into a partisan issue by saying, “Those Republicans, they should have known, it was a gay man.”

CALDARA: So, when Barney Franks -- I believe he was censured for this -- when Barney Franks's boyfriend was running a prostitution ring out of Barney Franks's home, was that something that we should have been equally aghast by? Should Barney Franks have stepped down? He didn't. He was re-elected with a 66 percent vote in the next election.

COULTER: And [former Rep. Gerry] Studds was re-elected, and he actually had sex with a 16-year-old page whom he took on a trip to Portugal with him. He was re-elected five times. So it looks like we have one party that does think it's wrong and one party that doesn't, but that same party that doesn't think it's wrong to actually have sex, to bugger a 16-year-old, thinks it is very wrong not to be wiretapping the gay guy, because it's Hastert they're mad at.

CALDARA: But it shouldn't be a partisan issue.