Cabinet Official’s Response Is “So Gay”

PROSSER DIGS HIS HOLE DEEPER WITH ATTACK ON THE MEDIA

FITSNews – August 4, 2008 – Believe us, we would love more than anyone to stop covering the ongoing “So Gay” scandal.  We didn’t break the story, we think its perpetuation hurts our state’s economy and worst of all, every time we write about it we think of Speedos, which is no fun at all.

But then yesterday – a day after being caught lying about his role in the scandal – South Carolina’s top tourism official, Chad Prosser, had the audacity to pen an op-ed that conveniently ignores his misdeeds, attempts to legitimize the scapegoating of one of his subordinates, and attacks the press for calling his agency to the carpet for the whole mess:

To his credit, the employee at SCPRT who initially approved participation in Amro’s promotion, has taken responsibility for his action and resigned in a letter to his supervisor dated July 11, 2008. And, SCPRT’s contractor in London has absorbed the $4,942.50 cost of the Amro promotion. Thus, no state dollars have gone to fund this promotion.

As Director of SCPRT, I take full responsibility for the organizational failure that allowed one employee to approve this third-party promotion without it undergoing the same scrutiny and review that all SCPRT ads undergo. We have made internal changes to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

For those skeptics who imply that the Amro promotion was a strategic decision made by SCPRT at the policy level, I invite them to review all of the documents, correspondence and e-mails made public this week by SCPRT. This paper trail clearly demonstrates that the employee in question acted on his own without the knowledge of even his direct supervisor.

While the facts are not nearly as sensational as all of the speculation, they do demonstrate what actually happened. I hope that the media that have reported otherwise will demonstrate the same level of character as those at SCPRT who have taken responsibility for their actions.

We’ve always liked Prosser. He’s a nice guy and we think he’s done an admirable job promoting our state’s tourism economy.  Having said that, he can kiss our firm and immaculately-sculpted asses if he thinks we’re going to swallow his agency’s song and dance on this one. Rather than standing up to a bunch of homophobic legislators and defending a legitimate marketing expense, Prosser and the administration of Gov. Mark Sanford totally caved on this one – and are now seeking to blame the media for the fact that they got caught lying in the process.

That’s pathetic – and once again exacerbates a story which, for the good of our state, needs to go away …

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