House Speaker John Boehner had just broken off debt ceiling talks with President Barack Obama on July 22 when Tea Party Nation Founder Judson Phillips blogged to his following, "Boehner's stand up moment."

"We need to get out and support Boehner," he wrote.

Just five days later, after Boehner had introduced a bill to raise the debt ceiling that included spending cuts, no tax increases, and a guaranteed vote on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, Phillips blogged again: "John Boehner is the sugar daddy of the welfare state," he wrote. "It does not matter how much Boehner claims to be a conservative, he is not."

With friends like that who needs enemies? As the debt ceiling debate took daily twists and turns ahead of an Aug. 2 deadline on government default, one phenomenon regularly emerged: The expectations of the Tea Party faithful kept bumping up against the reality of a White House and Senate controlled by liberal Democrats.