TEA PARTY IN-FIGHTING

Don’t look now, but all hell has broken out within the Tea Party!

In case you’ve been living on the dark side of the moon lately, you may have missed an ongoing rift between the “not-really-a-party” Tea Party and the NAACP.  A few days ago, NAACP President Ben Jealous spoke out against the Tea Party tolerating racism within the movement, pointing out specifics such as their depiction of President Obama as a Witch Doctor, among other atrocities. Enter Tea Party activist Mark Williams, who is best known for calling the Manhattan Borough President a “Jewish Uncle Tom” and President Obama an “Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug,” among other gems. Williams didn’t take kindly to Jealous’ remarks about his beloved Tea Party and went on CNN calling the NAACP itself a “racist” organization, for having the name “Colored” still within its title.  He then took it a step further, writing a mock letter as if he were Ben Jealous to President Lincoln, entitled “Colored People.” Here is an excerpt of the letter, which was written in the supposed voice of slaves:

“Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!”

He then went on to say blacks don’t want taxes cut because “how will we Colored People ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn?” For the national Tea Party movement, that was the last straw!

In taking such a public hit due to the antics of one of the higher-ups within their own ranks, particularly since the Tea Party has long been thought of as a racist movement, they did what few thought they had the gumption to do — they kicked Mark Williams and his “Tea Party Express” followers out of the organization. “We, in the last 24 hours, have expelled Tea Party Express and Mark Williams from the National Tea Party Federation because of the letter that he wrote,” said Tea Party spokesman David Webb, who happens to be African-American. “Good riddance, Mark Williams,” said NAACP President Ben Jealous, who also praised David Webb and his colleagues for standing up and “self-policing” their movement.

But the expelled Mark Williams is mad as hell and fit to be tied. In a statement following his removal, Williams said:

“That careless individual tea partier who assumed the mantel of ‘leadership’ did so long enough to turn a critical and serious movement and delicate peace with skeptical groups into a World Wrestling style personality conflict with me at the center. There are internal political dramas amongst the various self-anointed tea party ‘leaders,’ and some of the minor players on the fringes see the Tea Party Express and Mark Williams as tickets to a booking on “Fact [sic] the Nation.’ “

Ironically, the National Tea Party Federation said it ordered the Tea Party Express to remove Williams from their faction and to make it “prominently” clear on their Website that they had done so. But they did not. And so, David Webb and his national leaders did it for them.

Williams’ response: “Who’s the National Tea Party Federation anyway?”

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