Peter Freyne announced he's retiring his "Inside Track" column as of this week. You may remember Freyne from the days of the Howard Dean campaign -- he's been writing his column on and off since 1981, and has been at Seven Days, Vermont's alt. weekly, since 1995. Freyne has a reputation for asking tough questions and holding politicians' feet to the fire.
This may not be major-market media gossip, but it's big news in Vermont.
Dan Barlow of the Vermont Press Bureau interviewed Senator Patrick Leahy about Freyne's departure for a lengthy article today.
Here's what Senator Leahy had to say:
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy said Wednesday that Freyne's retirement is a "big loss" for Vermont. The columnist has an institutional memory of Vermont politics and was always unafraid to "look behind the façade" or ask probing questions to find out "what is really going on," the Democratic senator said.
"I went to his blog every day," Leahy said. "He is the type of writer who clearly knows hypocrisy. But he also knows the difference between healthy skepticism and cynicism."
We'll miss Peter.
-- Cathy Resmer, Online Editor, Seven Days