Character Revealed

Tea Party activist Mark Williams says he's done discussing the controversy stirred up by his attack on the NAACP, accusing a fellow movement leader of turning the debate into "a World Wrestling style personality conflict."

The National Tea Party Federation, an organization that represents the Tea Party political movement around the country, has expelled Williams and his Tea Party Express organization because of the inflammatory blog post Williams wrote last week, federation spokesman David Webb said Sunday. In response, Williams announced in another statement on his blog that, "I am refusing all media requests on this" and canceled a scheduled interview on CNN to discuss the controversy Sunday evening, citing a last-minute change in travel plans.

Williams deserved his ouster from the Federation for his poor attempt at satire, though I'm perplexed as to why his entire organization was suspended. Should the entire group be purged because their leader is a failure?

If so, will the last person leaving Washington, DC please shut off the lights.

I find it amusing that real inflammatory speech such as Williams is so easily identified and dealt with, but that the NAACP and other progressive groups have to go the route of Think Progress and manufacture fake racism.

As there racists in the Tea Party? I assure you there are as many racists in the Tea Party as there are at Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Burger King, Harvard University, your local car wash and the NAACP. Any organization of any size will attract individuals with fringe, even radical beliefs. The measure of the culture and character of an organization is revealed after those radical elements are exposed, and the organization has to decide how to deal with those radicals.

The NAACP refuses to discipline their radicals. The Tea Party expels them.

That the Tea Party better represents the values and ideals most Americans revere is obvious to all.