The tea-party movement's bigotry — especially regarding President Obama — is disturbing

Criticizing the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is as timeless and American as baseball. But no president in history has had so much racist vitriol directed at him as the current one, including being compared to a monkey and having his birthplace and religion endlessly questioned.

Much of the ire has come from members of the tea-party movement. Thus, a resolution by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People condemning racist elements of the nascent movement isn't surprising. Among the many racially tinged signs at tea-party rallies is my favorite: "Obama's Plan — White Slavery." Right.

The nation's oldest and largest civil-rights group is not only right on, they're right on time. The racial element of the tea-party movement is disturbing. At some point, Obama's race or just plain race comes up.

A University of Washington survey this spring found race, alongside politics and the size of government, to be key issues energizing the tea-party movement. One highlight: Respondents who believe the U.S. government has done too much to support blacks are 36 percent more likely to support the tea-party movement than those who are not.

The tea-party movement tries to hide behind limited government and restrained spending, classic — and in my view, unassailable — conservative tenets. But what separates this movement from the traditional Republican Party is the former's virulent anger directed at anyone who is not white, straight and Protestant.

Examples abound but most disturbing is Kentucky GOP Senate hopeful Rand Paul's criticism of the 1964 Civil Rights Act because he didn't think government ought to tell private restaurant owners who they can and cannot serve. That's an old argument used not just by opponents of integration efforts in the 1950s and '60s, but further back by slave owners who argued the federal government had no right to tell them what to do with their "property."

Perhaps the NAACP is looking for relevancy amid changing political dynamics. The tea-party movement ought to be looking for credibility among its many not-so-credible members. If this movement wants to move closer to the rational political milieu, it must get rid of the bigots. The GOP can recite chapter and verse about the danger of trying to hold onto all elements of a party while trying to keep the tent from crashing down.

Tea-party leaders argue that any racism is the responsibility of a few bad actors, not the larger movement.

One leader, Jenny Beth Martin, told CNN: "There certainly are people who have been involved in tea-party events or call themselves tea-party leaders who have done these things. And we've said we're not going to put up with it."

Say it again Jenny. And again. And mean it.

Rather than trying to sell mutton as lamb, the tea-party crowd has to acknowledge its racist elements and excise them. Absent the bigotry and opposition to Obama because of his skin color, real and legitimate concerns about the president, from his embrace of a stimulus spigot that doesn't seem to have an off switch to his fluctuations on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would rise to the level of serious debate.

Of course, other obstacles stand in the way of the tea-party movement's search for credibility. Namely, they've got one serious lunatic fringe. A tea partyer challenging a Democrat in Illinois's 9th Congressional District was asked about the movement's lack of diversity and responded by pointing to a fellow member, Chris Broughton.

Yes, Broughton is African American. But he is also the guy who brought an AR-15 rifle and a handgun to an Arizona Obama rally last year because he concurred with his fundamentalist pastor's prayer for President Obama "to die and go to hell."

A local ABC affiliate caught up with Broughton outside his church where he added unhelpfully that he was inspired by his pastor's sermon titled, "Why I Hate Barack Obama."

If this is the tea-party movement's only example of diversity, the NAACP has one heck of a point.

Lynne K. Varner's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is lvarner@seattletimes.com