He didn’t mean all tea partiers, silly. He meant a nameless, faceless “some,” much as Obama insisted repeatedly during his bus tour that there are “some” in Congress who care more about party than country without ever getting around to identifying them. Much as I might say there are “some” Democratic leaders so low-rent that they’d happily demagogue their opponents in the cheapest, most toxic ways to gain political advantage.

No no, just kidding about that last part. Pretty much all Democrat leaders are that low-rent.

“Well, I wasn’t talking about the entire tea party. I think the tea party is absolutely right when they call for increased transparency in government, when they call for a cutback on excessive government spending. I am deeply concerned about some elements of the tea party who are extremist and who have reflected a mentality going back to the John Birch society, going back to George Wallace’s Dixiecrats,” Carson said…

And earlier Wednesday, Jason Tomsci, a Carson aide, said the congressman’s sentiments were valid. “Members of the tea party are holding up a lot of things that the president wants to do and want to gut critical services and programs that they know are important to African Americans as well as Latinos and other minorities,” Tomsci said…

“I stand on the truth of what I spoke,” he said. “My intentions weren’t to hurt anyone or any group. I wanted to speak to the issues that concern me and the philosophical issues that concern me as it relates to certain leadership within the tea party organization, not the entire tea party, but certain elements that have concerned me deeply and for quite some time that I think should really re-evaluate what it means to be an American and we shouldn’t go along the path of taking America back to the ‘good old days’ because those days were not good for everyone.”

If tepid support for programs favored by the Congressional Black Caucus is the new hallmark of racism, then do I have a racist for you. And before you ask, no, of course no one in the Democratic leadership has challenged Carson on what he said yet. I told you I wasn’t kidding when I said they’re all that low-rent.

Allen West, incidentally, has sent a letter to the leadership of the CBC demanding that they condemn Carson and Maxine Waters for race-baiting or else he might have to quit the group. Exit quotation: “All of us, especially Congressman Carson, Congresswoman Waters and others who have engaged in racially-motivated rhetoric, should follow the example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., not the example of Reverend Jeremiah Wright.”