Some Republicans Calling Out Tea Party Racism

Others, not so much. They're just blaming liberals, saying it's the way the left does politics. I don't know how all of those hate signs can be ignored. I've seen one too many tea party interviews. Did you catch Ms. Tea Party of Idaho on Letterman? She starts off well-mannered, intelligent and then reveals herself as a birther. It seems to me that even if liberals were playing politics, calling out racism when it's clearly there is the right thing to do. How could republicans go wrong? More ought to behave like Lenny McAllister:

Yet Lenny McAllister, a Republican commentator and author, said he has seen racism within the tea party and has confronted it -- approaching people with racially derogatory signs of President Obama and asking them to take the signs down. Like Brice, he said leaders of the movement must not ignore the issue.

"I feel like the tea party movement is at its core a good thing for America. It is a group of citizens that have not been previously involved," McAllister said. "The people are speaking up and becoming more educated on the issues, but you have fringe elements that are defining this good thing with their negative, hateful behavior."

McAllister, who has spoken at several tea party gatherings, said the movement is more diverse than news clips show. "There is this perception that these are all old, white racists and that's not the case," he said.

According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll taken last month, about 79 percent of tea party members are white and 6 percent are black, with 15 percent falling into other racial categories. Read more at WAPO