Teabaggers=Republicans

The Tea Party is NOT a political party.  It's just the GOP base.  It' looks different because it's agitated, scared and angry, but they have no intention of splitting from the Party:

...one Tea Party activist who traveled hundreds of miles to attend the meeting at RNC headquarters in Washington, D.C., said sparks could fly.  "Steele wants to try to co-opt us, but we're coming to tell him he doesn't get it. We want to return the Republican Party to its roots. We're expecting some fireworks," the activist said.

 The GOP knows it's the base that votes in off-year elections; they know the winds are with their base, not the Dems'; they're furiously fanning the flames of fear and anger, to get their people to the polls in November.  I think that's what all this is about.  By 2012, the Tea Party will have little Republican support.  Watch.