For quite some time, it seems,  an ever present veil of denial was adequate to obscure the obvious — that the fresh energy that ultra-conservative voters were bringing to the Republican Party sometimes contained racist overtones.

The newly nominated Tea Party candidates have been touted as the “new wave” of the Republican party, the true Republicans ready to take their party back from the likes of George Bush and John McCain.

Of special interest is the Tea Party Express, of which Mark Williams is the spokesperson, and which is sponsoring Sharon Angle in its attempt to vote Harry Reid out of office.  It also creates area events as a part of its “national bus tour”.

Also of interest is the Tea Party Federation, which has sought to be an umbrella for the many grass-roots efforts, including the Tea Party Express.  Recently, the Federation has expelled the Express with this strong statement dated Saturday July 17:

Effective Immediately, Tea Party Express Is No Longer a Member of the National Tea Party Federation

The membership of the National Tea Party Federation has this evening suspended and will immediately expel Tea Party Express from any further association with the Federation should they fail to publicly rebuke Mark Williams and remove him from their ranks by 3 pm eastern time Saturday July 17.

The Federation was reacting to Mark Williams’ attack on the NAACP, after the civil rights organization had called upon Tea Party groups to renounce racism. Ironically, only a few days before, the Federation began its own response to the NAACP with the following words:

The National Tea Party Federation (NTPF) today flatly rejected the NAACP’s unfounded accusations that condemn “racist elements” in the tea party movement.

Then three days later, they condemned the spokesman of the Tea Party Express for his racist comments.

It wasn’t enough that Williams declared the NAACP racist because it had “colored people” in the name, or that Williams defined the organization as “Racists [who]  have their own movement” and furthermore who are “a bunch of old fossils looking to make a buck off skin color.”

Rather after personal reflection, Williams decided to write a satirical piece describing “coloreds” as lazy, willfully ignorant, irresponsible people just waiting for a hand-out and a big-screen TV purchased by working people.

Various Tea Party groups are repudiating Williams, and with good reason. Clearly Williams is working from an agenda not shared by all.