Most old guard politicians hate the tea party as the main goal is to take back the country from the politicians. Repubs and dems.
Politics is full of hate and vitrol and with the bias from the media (on both left and right) it is hard for a person to find out the facts.
I think it will ultimately backfire.
Poll after poll shows that more Americans share the values of the Tea Party groups than of the liberal politicians. But it seems to me that picking on the Tea Party is showing how extreme many in congress have become.