225px-official_photo_congressman_jared_polis_1-27-2009Congressman Jared Polis has apologized for his statements that he and other supporters of Internet-based media “killed” the Rocky Mountain News, which was shuttered last week after nearly 150 years. The demise of the Rocky was “mostly for the better,” said Polis, a Boulder Democrat, who made millions with an Internet greeting-card company.

Now Polis is sorry: “I did not mean to offend nor to show anything less than a strong sense of remorse for the loss of the Rocky,” he says in a statement (via The Denver Post). His remarks, which came at a conference for bloggers in Westminster over the weekend, set off a firestorm, especially among those loyal to the Rocky.

The newspaper’s former film critic, Robert Denerstein, labeled Polis the moment’s “worst person in Colorado” at IWantMyRocky.

Former Rocky columnist turned Denver Post columnist Mike Littwin describes Polis’ political affiliation as “D-Anti Newspaper” and isn’t buying the apology. “It’s the typical, politician’s, old-media-style, non-apology apology, in which he apologizes for, uh, getting caught saying what he really thinks.”

Westword’s Michael Roberts, meanwhile, calls Polis’ remarks “hamhanded.”