Peter Nicholas / Chicago Tribune Washington -- With racism accusations roiling the conservative movement, the National Tea Party Federation said Sunday it had ejected commentator Mark Williams over an incendiary blog post in which he wrote a fictitious letter to Abraham Lincoln.
The faux letter was written in the name of Benjamin Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in response to an NAACP resolution condemning "racist elements" within the tea party.
One passage of Williams' "letter" read: "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!"
Advertisement Williams is a spokesman for Tea Party Express, a California-based political action committee. Tea Party Express was a part of the federation but it was expelled after refusing to banish Williams.
On CBS's "Face the Nation," federation spokesman David Webb said Williams may have considered the letter satire, but it was "clearly offensive."
Vice President Joe Biden, appearing on ABC's "This Week," said certain tea partiers have "expressed really unfortunate comments."
But Biden added that neither he nor President Barack Obama believe the group is racist.
>From The Detroit News:
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100719/POLITICS03/7190348/1020/Dems-ready-for-jobless-benefits-vote/Tea-Party-ousts-official-over-incendiary-letter#ixzz0uEtzo4Rh