Goodloe Sutton is not offering any apologies.

Sutton, the publisher of the weekly newspaper the Democrat-Reporter in Linden, created a firestorm last week with an editorial titled “Klan needs to ride again.” The backlash included Sutton being stripped of journalism honors and censured by the Alabama Press Association.

Several lawmakers have called for Sutton, whose family has operated the newspaper since 1917, to apologize and resign.

Sutton said he’s received numerous comments from people across the country, some of which he printed on the front page of this week’s Democrat-Reporter under the headline: “Response: Love editorials.”

“The Democrats have been terrible,” he said. “The KKK are the nicest.”

He does not regret writing the controversial editorial.

“It got me about $10 million in free publicity. I know I would do it all over again.”

Sutton said many people missed the point of the editorial, however.

“The point of the editorial was ironic in that all these years, the FBI and the Department of Justice have been investigating the Klan and now, that shoe is on the other foot. (The FBI and Justice Department) are doing wrong and the Klan needs to investigate them. That’s what the point of (the editorial) was. Not a lot of people understand irony today."

Media from across the country have been contacting the newspaper, Sutton said.

“I walked into the coffee shop and some of my derelict friends said ‘here comes our celebrity,’” Sutton said, adding quickly that the attention – and criticism – “doesn’t bother me one way or the other.”

If people are offended, that comes with the territory, he said.

“Hell, that’s what we’re supposed to do.”

Sutton, 80, said he’s in the process of selling the Marengo County newspaper, which has a circulation of around 3,000. He said he was also working on several books.

As for the “liberals” offended by the editorial, Sutton had a message: “It’s not their country. It’s our country and if they don’t like it, they can go to hell.”

U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., responded to Sutton’s departure by tweeting, “Good riddance:"