In a statement late Friday night, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn said that he was misunderstood when he said during an interview Thursday that he had “gone beyond” the legacy of former U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley.
“Lamborn respects the years of service by Congressman Hefley and did not intend to cause any offense by his inartful words,” the statement read. Lamborn, who was preceded by Hefley in the House of Representatives, said during a Gazette TV interview Thursday that he had “gone beyond his legacy.”
But in a response, Lamborn wrote that he hadn’t intended to compare his chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources to Hefley’s past leadership positions.
On Friday, Hefley had responded to Lamborn’s Thursday interview, and called him a “knucklehead,” and asked, “how can you be so stupid?”
Read that story here.
Hefley, a Colorado Springs Republican, represented the Fifth Congressional District for 20 years, from 1987 to 2007. During his time in Congress, he chaired the House Ethics Committee, the Subcommittee on Military Construction, and the Subcommittee on Parks and Public Lands.
Lamborn’s statement read, “Congressman Lamborn says he did not intend to compare his current chairmanship of the Energy and Minerals Subcommittee to Hefley’s chairmanship on an Armed Service Subcommittee, instead he says he was comparing it to the other subcommittees within the House Natural Resources Committee.
“Congressman Lamborn meant to say in the interview that he was building on the legacy of former Congressman Hefley. He indeed complimented Hefley for chairing an important subcommittee on Armed Services at the end of his career.”
During Thursday’s interview, Lamborn said of Hefley, “I feel I’ve gone beyond his legacy. I’ve gotten the National Veterans’ Cemetery in the works, when he was not able to do that at all.
“In his very last few years, he was chairman of a good subcommittee, on Armed Services, the Readiness Subcommittee. Earlier in his career, he was on Natural Resources, and he had a subcommittee chairmanship, but it wasn’t as good as the one I’m on now.
“I’m chairman of the Energy and Minerals Subcommittee, which has to do with all energy and minerals coming off the public lands of our nation, which is two and a half billion acres, onshore and offshore. Two and a half billion acres. And my subcommittee has jurisdiction over that. And of course, I want to promote the jobs and energy that come from our public lands.
“But he, and (former Colorado U.S. Rep.) Scott McInnis and other people from Colorado, going back years and decades, no one from Colorado has ever chaired that important subcommittee, that I’m aware of, until I did.”
Watch the interview here. Lamborn’s comments begin at about 26 minutes into the video.
Full of fear and loathing that this man has any power over public lands.
Just gross.
Agree. Scary.
We will see after June 26th…
I agree with you Rich. We’ll see after June 26
“in artful”??????
OMFG!!!
ROFLMFAO!!!
what a heeellaaarrious goober Lambie is…..I just hope Blahblah is just as entertaining!
I’ll see your committee and raise you two. How about you and your cohorts actually get some much needed bills passed in Congress while you still have time, Mr. Lamborn.
I have voted for the Congressman before but never been to impressed with the Congressman’s speaking abilities. He proved it again on the Gazette gig.
If it’s somethign he wants to do like he said on the Gazette gig, I would rather see Mr. Blaha defending conservative issues on Fox News than the Congressman any day. At least Mr. Blaha is confident and can keep his thoughts straight in front of the camera most of the time and he wants to get in front of the news where the masses of Americans watch our government’s progress. I really think Mr. Blaha could do a lot of good for Republicans and conservatisim doing national interviews on Fox and MSNBC, etc. Mr. Blaha has earned our votes.
I have absolutely no issues voting in a business man turned politician into office by the way.
One of our most influential Presidents was an actor turned politician. They all need a chance to learn the process of American government but then look at how much they can get done once they get the lay of the political land. Mr. Blaha strikes me as someone who will learn the lay of the land very quickly and will get a lot done for us….just like President Reagan.
Its no secret why you don’t see Congressman Lamborn on FoxNews, or CNN, or Meet the Press, or CPAC, or….(this list could indeed get very long.) Its no secret why he will not engage Blaha in a head-to-head debate. I don’t think he’s debated anyone since 2006. And those are debates against other republican/conservatives. He’s darn straight not going to mix it up with Ed Schultz or Juan Williams. “Inartful” is quite well put and basically applies to the man as a whole. The 5th CD ought to have a BLOW TORCH for a representative. Mousey just isn’t cutting it.
If this district votes to reelect Lamborn, they get what they deserve; a career politician who opens mouth without thinking and then spends more time trying to convince us that was not what he meant. Come on 5th District voters, you can and deserve better than you got now.
[...] Friday afternoon, Lamborn backpedaled on his comments, claiming that his gaffe towards Hefley was “inartful” and that he hadn’t [...]
Lamborn is a coward for not debating. He did the GTV gig and still came off looking like an inarticulate boob. If a veteran’s cemetary is your greatest accomplishment in office for 5 years, you are a failure by any measure.
Simply voting the party line as a inflexible hardliner is killing this district. El Paso County has the highest unemployment in the state and that’s with FOUR military bases!!!
Wake up Colorado Springs and vote this cretin out of office!!!
[...] Lamborn said afterward that his comments had been misinterpreted, the damage was [...]