One of my favorite columnists, Leonard Pitts Jr., he of McClatchy Newspapers and The Miami Herald, penned a thoughtful and direct piece today on the impact of the Tea Party movement and underlying racism.

Noting several incidents of anti-black, anti-gay and other prejudicial actions by Tea Party protesters lately, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist stated: " ... given how often tea party leaders have been forced to disavow hateful signs and slogans and even the presence of organized white supremacist groups in their midst, is it really fair to use the word 'isolated?' Is there not a rottenness here? And is not the unwillingness to call that rottenness by name part and parcel of the reason it endures?"

He also added, “Often we tell ourselves lies to spare ourselves truths. Had you asked them, the people who locked [Rep.] John Lewis inside [a] restaurant, the ones who mauled him at that bus station and smashed him down on that bridge, would not have said they acted from a rottenness within.”