Earlier today we posted a clip of Fox's Don Imus and Chris Wallace attempting to explain away their February exchange in which Wallace responded to Imus' question of whether Sarah Palin would be “sitting on [his] lap” during an interview saying “one can only hope.”

The pair found themselves back on the subject following criticism from NPR contributor Cokie Roberts during an interesting discussion about women in public office. Huffington Posts' Jason Linkins reports:

Roberts played this clip from the Don Imus show, in which Wallace and Imus joked about whether or not Sarah Palin would be sitting on Wallace's lap during her “Fox News Sunday” interview. Roberts responded:

“It's appalling. It's just appalling. It really is. You know, it's the last place that men feel that they can just make jokes. They would never make such jokes about a minority, you'd be in terrible trouble. But you can still make sexist jokes about women and get away with it.”

“Terrible trouble” indeed and if anyone should know the consequences of such commentary it should be Don Imus who was fired from his CBS radio program and MSNBC morning show after calling the Rutgers University women's basketball team “nappy-headed hos.”

Then again, maybe Imus and Wallace know that in the Fox News family they can say nearly anything they want -- be it homophobic, racially charged, misogynistic -- with absolute impunity.

It's as if Fox News and Fox Business have a strictly enforced blind eye, deaf ear policy.

On the bright side, it's nice to know Fox is enforcing some sort of policy on a consistent basis. After all, we already know the network cares little about enforcing its much publicized accuracy policy.

Related:

• Noting controversy over his Palin remarks, Wallace won't answer Imus' question about men wanting women to act like porn actresses

• Jeri Thompson calls on Wallace to apologize for Palin “lap” remarks; asks Fox to address

• Awkward! Fox & Friends crew confronts Wallace over his “hope” that Palin would “sit on [his] lap” during interview

• Wallace on whether Palin will be “sitting on [his] lap” during interview: “One can only hope”