Inside the Tea Party

This has been a year of stunning political upsets, with Scott Brown grabbing the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat and outsiders Joe Miller, Sharron Angle, and Christine O'Donnell shocking establishment GOP candidates in Alaska, Nevada, and Delaware, respectively. Much credit for the giant-slaying must go to Tea Party Express, a California group co-founded by longtime GOP operative Sal Russo and currently headed by Kremer, a self-described "true Southern belle" and former Delta Airlines flight attendant whose interest in politics was awakened by the 2008 election. Tapping a donor list of more than 400,000, the Tea Party Express pumped big money and organizational support into all the contests ($600,000 to promote Miller may not sound like much, but that sum goes a long way in Alaska's media market). Kremer recently told Karl Rove to "stay out of it" after the GOP mastermind made a well-publicized attack on O'Donnell. "This isn't about sending Republicans to Washington," she said. "It's about sending conservatives to Washington."