During the March 29 broadcast of his show, Newsradio 850 KOA host and Independence Institute president Jon Caldara claimed that an email in which state Rep. Mike Merrifield (D-Manitou Springs) disparaged supporters of charter schools as deserving “a special place in hell” was “more embarrassing” than the sexually explicit electronic communications that former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) sent to underage congressional pages. “The difference is Mark Foley wanted to screw young boys. These people want to screw our children,” Caldara said of Merrifield and other legislators who hold similar positions on education issues.

This is not the first time a conservative talk show host has suggested that a Democrat's missteps were worse than Foley's history of inappropriate communications with pages, which forced him to resign from Congress in 2006. The Rocky Mountain News reported March 31 that Merrifield apologized for the email and resigned his chairmanship of the House Education Committee.

Caldara was discussing the email that Merrifield sent to state Sen. Sue Windels (D-Arvada) with Brad Jones, the webmaster of the conservative website FacetheState.com, which first publicized the communication.

From the March 29 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Jon Caldara Show:

CALDARA: This email that you were able to get via the open records act here in Colorado -- and again, I've, I've got to tip my hat to Sue Windels, in that she -- she gave you the information and opened up her private email, which she has to do by law. But if she didn't, chances are no one would notice until -- until there was a lawsuit and, and if somebody else got it. That's the difficult thing with emails -- you never know exactly where they go. That's why all legislators and public officials need to be cognizant every time they press that send button. As Mark Foley found out, you don't know where it's going to end up.

JONES: At least this isn't that embarrassing, I guess.

CALDARA: No, actually this is more embarrassing. The difference is Mark Foley wanted to screw young boys. These people want to screw our children. There's a huge difference.

JONES: [Laughs] Good point.