He sounds like an outsider attending a NASCAR race and coming away saying 'People cheered the ritual human sacrifice as the brave warriors raced their fiery chariots in praise of their pantheon of Gods, Valvoline, Lord of Lubricants, Budweiser, the King of Beers, and assorted other demigods whose banners were proudly displayed.'

There is very little tension between the core GOP and the tea party movement, it is at worst on par with internal dem factions like big labor vs ACLU. The media certainly implies there's a lot of tension, but I am heavily involved with both groups, except that 'both' is a bit erroneous as it's mostly the same people. The big difference is the GOP has always contained populist and libertarian parts, usually those have been opposed where they differed from the core doctrine, with the Tea Party this is not the case, making it much more acceptable to both factions and to the party as a whole.

As for that bit about how people are suddenly flocking to him Paul... Anne Coulter has been saying nice things about him for years. Lot's of the GOP like him, most of us just don't agree with his 'Neville Chamberlain' outlook on WoT. Honestly, I think Greenwald just doesn't understand the way things work inside the right wing, like a lot of leftists, they have a tendency to fill in the blanks on the right by shoveling in paradoxical and evil mindsets, they're so convinced we're ideological fanatics that they can't believe two right-wingers who have different stances on abortion or the war might get along just fine and have no problem voting for someone in the national, just maybe not donating or voting for them in the primary.