Former U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colorado Springs
“My first reaction was, ‘How can you be so stupid?’”
That was former U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colorado Springs, who served the 5th Congressional District for 20 years, responding to a Gazette interview with CD-5′s current congressman, Doug Lamborn. In the interview, which was broadcast on Gazette TV on Thursday, Lamborn said he’d surpassed Hefley.
“I feel like I’ve gone beyond his legacy,” Lamborn said, when asked if he felt that he had proved himself a worthy successor.
Lamborn cited his chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, and said no other Colorado politician had ever chaired that “important” committee. The subcommittee, he said, oversees two and a half billion acres of public lands, both onshore and offshore. That makes him extremely powerful, he said, because he can help energy companies create jobs. (Lamborn’s comments are at 26 minutes in the interview.)
Lamborn did say that Hefley had chaired the Subcommittee on Armed Services Readiness, “but it’s not as good as the one I’m on now.”
Hefley laughed over the phone when asked about the interview.
U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs
“It showed me that Doug is either ignorant or he’s dishonest,” Hefley said. “I thought, ‘what a knucklehead.’”
The former congressman called the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee “relatively minor,” and said he had first chaired the Subcommittee on Military Construction. Then, that subcommittee was merged with Armed Services Readiness, and congressmen started calling it a “supercommittee.”
He also chaired the Subcommittee on Parks and Public Lands, and served at times on the Small Business and Space Committees.
And that left out Hefley’s most famous chairmanship — the House Ethics Committee.
The former congressman made national headlines when he stood up to former Speaker of the House, Tom DeLay, during the infamous scandal when DeLay was busted for money laundering. (DeLay was ultimately sentenced last year to three years in prison.) Under Hefley, DeLay was formally admonished three times.
“We know, and it’s documented, that Doug is very casual with the truth when it comes to campaigns, and I don’t like that,” Hefley said Friday.
Hefley has a longstanding grudge against Lamborn over the 2006 GOP primary, when six local Republicans ran to succeed him, after he announced his retirement. Hefley backed one of his former aides, Jeff Crank, who now is the director of the Colorado chapter of Americans For Prosperity. But after a fiercely negative campaign, Lamborn emerged victorious.
Part of the campaign was an extreme allegation that Crank was associated with “the radical homosexual agenda.” The accusation, which was ridiculed by many Republicans as completely unfounded, was not directly tied to Lamborn, but the congressman was blamed for the incident. Hefley is one of those.
Lamborn’s office did not immediately respond to a call for comment.
Hefley said though he’s spoken with Lamborn’s primary opponent, Robert Blaha, he has not endorsed him. Hefley said he’s going to stay out of the race.
The 303: There’s a list of campaign contributors at http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/com_ind/C00509737/; I Googled the Blaha kids’ names out of curiosity–6 are listed as donors. “Rachel Blaha Keane” came up when I Googled “Rachel Blaha.:
David: I have plenty of friends, thanks.
(And they VOTE.) The name I called Blaha? “Alibi Bob”? That’s simply because, when problems with one of the companies with which he touts a title arise (e.g., the $80,000 in tax liens levied on Tournament Gold/Attendeez), he absolves himself of involvement/responsibility. Let’s assume (only for the sake of argument) that’s true–that he had no involvement in the problems TGA encountered. Why, then, does he state (on the HCA website), “Since November 2001, he [Blaha] has served as a board member of Tournament Gold/Attendeez, based in Omaha, NE.” (http://www.hca-leadership.com/about-us.aspx)? Which is it, David? WAS he a director, or is he just EXTREMELY careless/sloppy? (The often-late Business Report filings might indicate the latter, but David? I don’t want a liar–someone who misrepresents himself via the use of titles–OR a careless person as my Representative.)
Answer my question Joan
Jessica: http://www.dictionary.com; look it up.
No share Joan- you tell someone to douche or whatever, clarify what you are telling me to do…I’m confused how this has to do with anything
Got it. We have already been here in previous threads (i.e. TGA-Agree though, Blaha does need to update his website but it is far from winning your argument.) You’re simply buying into what Lamborn is selling you. His hit tactics are nearly identical to how Obama is attacking Romney. Misrepresent small/big business practices and hope the masses can’t smell. But, if that is what you want with >9% unemployment in the area.
One more quick question-When does your Google habit become a stalking habit? Hint-It’s a rhetorical question. Hehehe.
David and Natalie:
“And nothing Lamborn has sponsored for the past 5 years has ever seen the light of day…..let’s kill new ideas before they can gain ground….right Rumple….give me a break.” (David)
“0 -40 = nothing accomplished.” (Natalie)
I have virtually limitless patience, so I will explain this again (and then save it, so next time I can just copy & paste).
Do you understand what a bicameral legislature is, David? That the U,S. Congress is comprised of (1) the House of Representatives and (2) the Senate? Good. Have you heard that Republicans control the House–that the House currently has more Republicans than Democrats–and that the opposite is the case in the Senate; i.e., that the Democrats control the Senate? Okay, good. Now, do you understand how laws come into existence? To save space here, I’ll direct you to http://kids.clerk.house.gov/middle-school/lesson.html?intID=17 (It’s aimed at middle-schoolers, but I think you can handle it.
)
Lamborn has had *7* bills pass the House (call it 6, if you want to exclude the Concurrent Resolution “Congratulating the first graduating class of the United States Air Force Academy on their 50th graduation anniversary and recognizing their contributions to the Nation”), more than any other Republican Representative who took office when he did (2007) or since. It is NOT Lamborn’s fault if the Senate hasn’t taken up the bills. Heck, intuitively, I’d say that shows they are quite conservative!
As I posted elsewhere, Allen West and Paul Ryan haven’t had any of the bills they’ve introduced signed into law in the time Lamborn’s been in D.C., either. I guess Blaha should scratch them off his list of “leaders,” eh? (Seeing as they BOTH endorsed Lamborn, I’m wondering if Blaha will “unlike” them on FB?)
As for Blaha’s desire to see Lean Six Sigma methodology/usage mandated for federal agencies AND being the one to introduce the legislation requiring it, he’s too late. Tom Latham introduced a bill a year ago (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr2188) that would “require government-wide application of continuous process improvement methods…” (Section 3 defines “continuous process improvement” as “a management methodology (commonly referred to as lean six sigma)…”) Why has it been in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee for a year? Republicans are in charge there, NOT Democrats. MAYBE a lot of Republicans don’t like it? (I’d really like it to get voted out of committee so we could learn, eventually, how much LSS implementation would COST.) Ah, well. Cutting waste (inefficiency) within the federal bureaucracy, despite what Blaha seems to think, WON’T solve the crisis we face regarding the deficit. Hmm…Doesn’t LSS call for cutting expenditures by 25% per year? Can’t be done! Too much of what the government spends goes toward entitlement programs. See Tad DeHaven’s “The Dumbest Budget ‘Plan’ Yet”: (http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/the-dumbest-budget-plan-yet/)
The “0-40″ hardly means Lamborn hasn’t accomplished anything. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuznXWDOPio&feature=player_embedded#!
Board members don’t run the company Rumple. Business 101. @303 – she’s crossed into stalking
The 303: My point has been that Lamborn has been unjustifiably accused of “attacking” businesses. That was hardly his intent; his intent (I’m fairly certain) was to disprove Blaha’s self-proclaimed status as a business “expert,” and the only way to do that is to show that the businesses–businesses (and organizations, such as USA Boxing) with which Blaha has held executive positions–HAVEN’T performed nearly as well as one might expect under the helm of an “expert.” (Indeed, some–e.g., ASG and TG/A–were forced to dissolve.) You are correct; if he’s not willing to accept some degree of responsibility, he shouldn’t display the title, I think I might have gone further than Lamborn in pulling back Blaha’s green curtain. I did check out (not literally) his three books (amazon.com). I’m sorry, but one was self-published (HCA) and another was published by Air Academy Press and Assosciates (about as close to self-publishing as you can get, from what I’ve discovered); I’m underwhelmed.
Lamborn had every right to point to the performance of the companies he did. Blaha has nothing else–other than his business record–by which voters can objectively judge his competency (and, indirectly, his truthfulness). Someone–it might have been Natalie–posted a number of personal factors: “self-made” man (I have to question that, a LITTLE; I recently heard Blaha say his father and grandfather were doctors), married for 30+ years, 7 kids, all college-educated or attending college… All of those things are great, but I don’t think doing the “right thing(s),” as rare as it might be these days, correlates with being a good Representative. (Those things are rewards in themselves, if you know what I mean.) Lamborn has done well (marriage, kids) in the personal arena, too, so I guess that would be a wash, anyway. Certainly if he feels he has a lot to contribute to the nation, he has a lot to contribute to Colorado. Heck, state governments need to cut waste and improve efficiency, too; maybe Blaha should seek a state (or county) office?
I think people (read: Blaha supporters) have overlooked Lamborn’s instrumental role in bringing a combat aviation brigade– ~2700 troops PLUS their families–to Ft. Carson. Those troops need housing (if off-post), food, clothing, entertainment, services…they will spend money in the area and their presence will contribute to the creation of other, private-sector jobs.
I am waiting for a used (but serviceable) drone to pop up on eBay. I will become a stalker extraordinaire!
tired (David): Directors are charged with overseeing the officers of a company (to protect the interests of investors). I have a B.S. in business, ftr.
A lot of time spent by someone who has no horse in this race.
0-40 still equals nothing and its time for new leadership.
And next time use stuff written for pre schoolers, that Jr high material was way over my head. Really Rumple, your condescension is getting tiresome and it’s still not appropriate just like calling Blaha a blowhard. You just don’t get it. Wow
You and your friends vote for your man and the rest of us will vote for our man. That’s Democracy, thank God we have it.
Exactly Joan….exactly. Your lack of explanation says it all. What you told me to do was a perfect example of your character. Act like an adult and be respectful, please.
I watched both interviews and I was less than impressed with either candidate. But Lamborn is just an idiot and if the people of this area voted him in again, they deserve him and are even dumber than he is.
[...] Friday, Hefley had responded to Lamborn’s Thursday interview, and called him a “knucklehead,” and asked, “how can you be so [...]
lameborn has accomplished NADA
100 likes. Doug is in trouble.
This really would’ve & should’ve been very, very simple. y’all have really left the reservation. At issue here isn’t Blaha’s record with some Nebraska corporation. The issue is our Congressman’s blatant inability to speak & articulate on his feet. Which was demonstrated yet again today when the man left a voice mail on an unknown number – incriminating HIMSELF. My 15 y/o knows better than that. But still. Had this gone something like this:
When asked if he’s surpassed Hefley’s legacy, Congressman Lamborn said, “Surpass Hefley?! No, not by a long shot. Congressman Hefley was a tremendous representative of the people of the 5th CD, he as universally liked and a statesman by any measure of the term. I haven’t surpassed his legacy and I’m doubtful anyone could. I’m just blessed to have been granted the opportunity to fill his shoes for a while.”
Had Cap’n CommonSense said something along these lines, there’d be no discussion this week. He blew it and blew it big. Yet many of you in here are trying to turn this around into “Blaha is bad.” Maybe true, maybe not – but that has NOTHING TO DO with the discussion at hand.
[...] Gazette TV. Lamborn was unhappy last Friday after I wrote about former U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley calling Lamborn a “knucklehead,” and then called a pair of House Republican candidates to suggest they not appear on the [...]