Miller, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the Republican primary, has trumpeted his Express connections. He gives the Tea Party Express endorsement center stage -- just to the right of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- in a photo montage of "Endorsements'' on his campaign's web page.

And the Tea Party Express last week announced it was buying up $100,000 in Alaska radio time to advertise for Miller.

Now, however, the organization now finds itself in deep trouble for a blog post Williams wrote mocking the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP said last week it was troubled by the Tea Party's seeming acceptance of racists.

Williams' response was to mock "colored people'' by writing a fictional letter to President Abraham Lincoln in which he has them saying, ""We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don't cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!"

The Tea Party Federation said the blog post was "clearly offensive,'' and Williams took it down. But that apparently was not enough. The party said it was booting Williams, a conservative commentator, and his Express anyway.

How this affects Alaskan Miller, who is battling an incumbent with a fat war chest with which to finance advertising on the way to the Aug. 24 primary vote, remains to be seen.

Update: The Tea Party Express seems to be moving forward, and has a press conference scheduled for Monday morning to unveil a series of new campaign ads for Miller.

Miller spokesman Randy DeSoto said the campaign "disavows racism of any kind."  Desoto,  however, said he could see where Williams was going with his comparison of being a slave in the South to being a slave to the Federal Government. [Note: DeSoto later added that he doesn't think it's a valid comparison, and that what slaves experienced in the South can in no way be equated to current actions being taken by the Federal Government.]

DeSoto also said he wasn't sure how the Tea Party shakeup would affect the money the Tea Party Express has been putting into the race, but that it wouldn't alter Miller's strategy at all.

"Our messages are the same," he said. "Government is too big and Lisa Murkowski is part of the problem."

Here's DeSoto's email response in full:

"Joe disavows racism of any kind.  He agrees with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s admonition not to judge anyone by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.  Mark Williams stepped down as a chairman of the Tea Party Express last month, in the wake criticism caused by earlier controversial remarks that he had made.  His satire, 'Letter to Lincoln,' appeared on his private blog, not anything directly linked with the Tea Party Express.  We trust that organization in no way shares those views."

Correction: The orginal headline read, "Tea Party Express ousts Joe Miller backer." It's been changed to note that it was the Tea Party Federation that ousted Miller's backer.