Tea Party Leader Calls Obama a 'Half-White Racist'

Tea Party Leader: Obama a 'Half-White Racist'

Mark Williams, one of the tour partners for the Tea Party Express, called President Barack Obama "our half-white, racist president." He also referred to President Obama as a "Nazi."

In a September e-mail obtained by Talking Points Memo, Williams was responding to what he called a "false allegation" by CNN that he called President Obama a Nazi. Williams then attempted to argue that he has a strong record on Civil Rights.

He mentioned "marching for civil rights while asshole Southern sheriffs were swinging nail-studded bats at blacks' heads."

When speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper, Williams seemed to backpedal on his words a bit. Here's the transcript:

COOPER: But wait, Mark, you're actually the one who called President Obama a Nazi.
WILLIAMS: I didn't call Barack Obama a Nazi.

COOPER: Yes, he's on your list, on your Web site of like 21st century Nazis. You have his name.

WILLIAMS: We've got the philosophy of fascism and national socialism at work here. Of course we do.

COOPER: No, no. but you have the president's name, although it's a derivation that's not his actually name. It's a name it's kind of a negative.

WILLIAMS: Mubarak Hussein Obama.

COOPER: Right, that's what's you call him on your Web site. You're the one who's using the term Nazi.

The Tea Party Express is a nationwide anti-Obama bus tour. It has strong associations with the group Our Country Deserves Better PAC, which is run out of the Republican strategy firm Russo Marsh. Williams is a spokesperson for Tea Party Express.

Robin Stublen, a leader of the Tea Party Patriots, said this to The Huffington Post:

"Mark Williams is not someone I would want being my spokesman. He comes off as an arrogant, self-promoting, egotistical jerk. In politics, people like Mark Williams are a dime a dozen, even when you factor in inflation."

Williams typed these remarks in to a September e-mail that was obtained by the media:

"I will defend my record on race to no one [sic], under any circumstances, and I will call out any racist any time without regard to who they are ... and that includes our half-white, racist president."

When it comes to Williams and the rest of the Tea Party Movement, some simple thoughts come to mind:

1) Calling someone a racist is okay but you have to have evidence. It appears that evidence and logic are two things that the Tea Parties don't seem to value. The movement is based on irrational anger and resentment toward the first black authority figure our nation has ever been forced to address. That is the source of much of the anger.

2) Complaints about socialist policies are a bit hypocritical. The United States is a capitalist society, but not completely. We were socialists when the government intervened to save banks. We use socialism when Americans ask for unemployment benefits, social security payments or to be saved from foreclosure. We are also using forms of socialism when Americans want to call the fire or police departments. The Tea Partiers seem to love capitalism when it benefits them, but embrace socialist concepts when they are demanding that the government bail them out of their economic hardships.

Like other silly movements of the past, the Tea Party Express will eventually die. At the same time, they have a very real ability to impact the midterm elections. Republicans will gain congressional seats and then find themselves to be just as ineffective as their predecessors. That is the pattern of Washington.