Tea Party Federation boots Mark Williams, TPE, over ‘colored’ letter
Since The Reid Report became the first to report that Mark Williams posted his racist “letter from the colored people to President Lincoln,” it has become a national firestorm, prompting Williams to first edit, and then take down his post. Well now, the tea party movement has taken Williams down, too.
From CNN, which has given Williams more airtime than any other network, comes this…
The National Tea Party Federation, an organization that represents the Tea Party political movement around the country, has expelled conservative commentator Mark Williams and his Tea Party Express because of an inflammatory blog post he wrote, federation spokesman David Webb said Sunday.
Appearing on the CBS program “Face the Nation,” Webb said that Williams and the Tea Party Express — which has held a series of events across the country to generate support for the movement — no longer were part of the National Tea Party Federation.
“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,” Webb said of the blog post by Williams that satirized a fictional letter from what he called “Colored People” to President Abraham Lincoln.
Webb called the blog post “clearly offensive.”
(Webb is African-American, btw — a sign that the tea party movement, whatever it may claim, is indeed sensitive to the charges of racism, and like the RNC, wants to put as much of a black face on itself as possible to compensate for the minuscule numbers of non-white people actually in its ranks. Note just how many black “tea party leaders” you’ve seen on TV in the last five days — far more than you’ve ever seen depicted at any of the rallies …
Meanwhile, many people, including on this site, and up to Republican operative Mary Matalin, who have insisted that Williams was a minor player in the tea party movement and had no influence, have got to be scratching their heads this morning, since Williams was not just expelled as a lowly individual, but as the representative/spokesman and leader of TPE, which is now out on the street as well.
Williams will get his 15th minute of fame tonight on CNN, when he appears with Don Lemon to explain himself, probably for the last time on national television.
So far, Williams hasn’t posted a statement on his website responding to his ouster. And the Tea Party Express has stripped their homepage to the bone, though if you go straight to their “About” page, you can still find evidence of Mark Williams’ tenure as spokesman.
Enjoy you life as a private citizen, Mark.
Related:How Ben Jealous beat the tea parties
Comments
8 Responses to “Tea Party Federation boots Mark Williams, TPE, over ‘colored’ letter”
Leave a Reply
TOP STORIES
Follow & Friend
Links
The Reid Report named Best National Blog in the 2010 Florida Netroots Awards! Thanks to all who voted, and congrats to all the nominees and winners! Full list of winners here
Finalist: Best Liberal Blog
WTF Has Barack Obama Done So Far?
[...] that Mark Williams, spokesman for the Tea Party Express, who along with his group have been expelled from the national Tea Party Federation, has canceled his scheduled interview with Don Lemon, which [...]
[...] the last few days. Even the person assigned to officially tell the world Mark Williams had been excommunicated from the movement, David Webb, is [...]
I think people just get too worked up over things that arent really as serious as it seems.
I guess we should congratulate them for doing as we have been suggesting.
Ginger, call me.
As a tea party member and blogger I was very disappointed to see Mark Williams do this. I have been defending the tea party against charges of racism, only to have Williams shoot the movement in the foot. Well it was the right thing to do expelling TPE, which is to bad they have done a lot of good. But this was unacceptable.
And John, it’s easier to defend them against charges of racism, if those saying racist things are expelled. Otherwise, your defense has no credibility.
wassup, I usually dont read these types of posts cause I think the game is falling off but you make a good point so im gonna blog thanx.
Undeniably believe that which you said. Your favourite justification appeared to be at the internet the simplest thing to take into accout of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed even as other people think about concerns that they plainly don’t recognise about. You controlled to hit the nail upon the highest and also defined out the entire thing without having side-effects , folks can take a signal. Will likely be again to get more. Thank you