Republican, Tea Party | featured news

You may have heard or read about the ugly scenes on Capitol Hill yesterday, when a few conservative activists shouted racial and homophobic epithets at Democratic lawmakers. Today the conservative activists are back. And so is the ugliness--only this time, a few Republicans were actually encouraging them.

Some Tea Partiers say they can pinpoint the precise moment when they made it clear to the Republican Party they had no intention of being its lapdog.

The Republican race to unseat Barbara Boxer was always volatile, with a multimillionaire businesswoman and a scrappy candidate embraced by the "tea party" movement competing for the right to challenge the three-term senator. But former Rep. Tom Campbell's late entry into the Republican primary seven weeks ago has markedly altered the dynamics of the race.

Republican observers say Palin's done more lately to establish herself as a political celebrity focused on publicity rather than a political candidate focused on policy.