Congressman Joel Hefley's office responded today to our assertion (below) that Hefley is telling friends and confidants that he plans to retire at the end of his current term.
Here's the link. Here's the text:
(Washington, DC) - U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., dismissed today a rumor regarding his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives.
"The information being circulated in the press about my retirement has certainly been news to me.
"There is an unsourced story on an obscure internet website which has posted what it believes are my intentions about whether or not I will seek reelection. It is important to note that this report comes from a website that also says I may switch parties, which speaks volumes about this site's credibility.
"Throughout my time in Congress, I have taken my decision to run for reelection with great seriousness and thought. I have always taken time to think through my decision, and when the time comes for me to announce my intentions that news will come from my office, not through the rumor mill.
"Unless I announce differently I think it is fair to assume that I am planning on running for reelection."
A couple of points:
1. We stand by our report that Hefley is telling others he plans to retire. Will he ultimately retire? We can't say for sure, but he is definitely telling others that he plans to call it a career. We didn't say that he would retire. We said he is telling people that he will.
2. If there's one thing we've learned in politics, as reader Laura S. ably pointed out, "where there's smoke, there's fire." Besides, they called us an obscure website - why issue a denial for something that an obscure website claims? If we were completely off-base, they would have ignored us altogether.
We'll take "obscure" by the way. We've been called worse.
3. We never said that Hefley was planning on switching parties. In fact, we went out of our way in the past to say that he would NOT consider such a move. Although, we're flattered that they would try to discredit us.
We did ask Hefley's office directly for comment this morning, and never got a response. We didn't know about this rebuttal until one of our readers pointed it out. Thanks Kip!
Like we said, we're sticking to our story. We'll see if they stick to theirs. Either way, mark another down for the blogging community.
Good work boys. http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_3571968,00.html
Posted by: Jason | February 24, 2005 at 01:25 AM
It's not so "obscure" when you're mentioned in the two largest newspapers in the state ...
Posted by: Ed | February 24, 2005 at 10:38 AM