But he came pretty close.

The Hill said today that Rep. Paul Broun challenging Sen. Johnny Isakson in the GOP primary is “the rumor that won’t die.”

A reporter for the Washington, D.C., newspaper asked Broun whether he plans to run against Isakson, and as the paper notes, Broun didn’t exactly say no.

“In an interview with The Hill last week, Broun insisted that the rumor is unfounded, but he also appears to be giving himself some wiggle room.

“Asked whether he would, under any circumstances, challenge Isakson, Broun initially said, ‘I don’t see any way that I would.’

“But then he asked to rephrase himself, and instead said he has ‘not had any discussions’ about such a thing.”

This happened to hit the Intertubes as I was talking to Team Broun. His spokeswomen say it’s not happening and, in fact, Broun sent a staffer to an Isakson campaign rally in Augusta today.

The paper quotes anonymous sources in the Georgia congressional delegation as saying they haven’t seen any evidence that Broun is interested in taking on Isakson, but they wouldn’t rule it out, either.

As The Hill notes, Broun’s congressional campaign is $370,000 in debt, and he started the year with only $30,000 cash on hand. Isakson had $2.3 million banked as of Dec. 31, so Broun would have a lot of ground to make up. A conventional top-of-the-ticket statewide campaign costs a minimum of $10 million, but then again, Broun has been outgunned money-wise before (three times, in fact) and come out on top.

Blake.aued@onlineathens.com