I think Hanson must have skimmed the news. I believe he has confused "defending Foley" with "defending Hastert".
This column was far from a home run. It was a long fly ball that went foul at the last moment.
Hanson may have stretched the "defending" Foley a bit...but in a following paragraph..."Still Republicans need to wise up: this is a losing issue since the public doesn’t really care whether the Democrats are hypocritical, using scandal for partisan advantage,..."
If you haven't heard Conservatives, (not to be confused with Republicans) hollering about the obvious hypocrisy of the demented Demos, then you are not listening. A great deal of Rush, Hannity, Beck, my heroine Ann, etc is spent in pointing out the obvious hypocrisy of the shameless demos; this can understandably be viewed as "defending" the screwball Foley.
What I understand Hanson is saying is that Republicans should condemn Foley loudly and let the idiot Demos hang themselves.
Interesting side note: there seems to be a backlash deveoloping among the gay community as the screwball Demos have made it obvious that they only consider the gay community as a reliable voting bloc...the Dems are making the suicidal argument that because the Republican leadership essentially knew that Foley was a poofter, he should have been monitored and his emails should have been intecepted. This is turning out to be wonderful theater.