(CNN) — 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 seeks to represent 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.
“That careless individual tea partier who assumed the mantel of ‘leadership’ did so long enough to turn a critical and serious movement and delicate peace with skeptical groups into a World Wrestling style personality conflict with me at the center,” Williams said. “There are internal political dramas amongst the various self-anointed tea party ‘leaders’ and some of the minor players on the fringes see the Tea Party Express and Mark Williams as tickets to a booking on “Fact [sic] the Nation.’ ”
Webb appeared on the CBS program Sunday morning to announce 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.
Full Story: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/18/tea.party.imbroglio/index.html