On Sunday, the Tea Party Federation, an umbrella organization, expelled the Tea Party Express over the actions of one of its leaders, Mark Williams.

The Tea Party Express fired back Monday with a statement excoriating the Tea Party Federation for its “arrogant” decision to expel the group after Williams posted a highly controversial satirical “letter” he wrote from NAACP head Ben Jealous to President Abraham Lincoln.

“Most rank-and-file tea party activists think we’re talking about ‘Star Trek’ when we try to explain who the ‘Federation’ is,” said Tea Party Express spokesman Joe Wierzbicki. “Given the absurdity of the actions by the ‘Federation,’ this is quite fitting, since their conduct is alien to our membership.”

“Groups trying to say who can or can’t be ‘expelled’ from the tea party movement is arrogant and preposterous,” Wierzbicki continued. “Perhaps this explains why so many tea party groups have left the ‘Federation’ during the past few months. Whatever the reason, most tea party activists are focused on taking back their country and the upcoming 2010 elections and not silly power games being played by individuals such as those in the ‘Federation.’”

After receiving criticism for his letter, Williams, a conservative radio host, said over the weekend in an interview with CNN that he would no longer talk about the conflict between tea party activists and the NAACP on his show.

But Williams’s announcement that he was bowing out of the fight wasn’t enough to keep the Tea Party Federation from expelling both the radio host and the Tea Party Express with which he is affiliated.

Federation spokesman David Webb said Sunday that Williams’s letter was “clearly offensive” and indicated that because of those comments, the Tea Party Express and the dozens of large rallies featuring the likes of former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin would no longer have a place in the movement.

The decision, said Wierzbicki, has harmed the tea party movement and aided the NAACP in its critique of the tea party.

“The ‘Federation’ has enabled and empowered the NAACP’s racist attacks on the tea party movement, and they should be ashamed of themselves,” he said. “Circular firing squads of groups within the tea party movement attacking one another accomplish nothing, and on this issue the Tea Party Federation is wrong, and has both enabled and empowered the NAACP’s racist attacks on the tea party movement.”