The corporate front group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) does not handle criticism well. In a Marietta Daily Journal piece today, a number of Georgia legislators defended their membership in the corporate lobby. One in particular, Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R), a former national chairman of ALEC, bitterly lashed out at the ALEC critics at Better Georgia. He called Bryan Long, executive director of the organization and a gay man, an “Occupy pansy“:

Mr. Long doesn’t like free speech, doesn’t like advocacy for anything other than what he wants. The majority of the citizens in this county and this state are going to agree with the principles of ALEC. Again, back to the founding principles of this country. I’ll stand them up against his tent principles all day long. I’m not afraid of some Occupy pansy sitting in a tent without a bath, I’m sorry.”

It’s extremely disturbing that the former national chairman of ALEC would rather respond to well-reasoned criticisms of his organization with homophobic slurs  than anything of substance.

 

Filed under: News Flash