Tea Party as ICA or mirage?

http://www.truth-out.org/social-movements-vs-social-movements-comparing-occupy-and-tea-party/1322682900

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The problem with the 'movement' is that its members' anger gets manipulated by a small group of partisan and media elites who are essentially Republican Party operatives. This is the dirty little secret of the Tea Party; it's not really a social movement, but a cluster of elitist interest groups operating locally and nationally, which is quite lacking in participatory elements and largely driven by a top-down approach, determined and dictated by Republican partisan officials and business elites of the Koch variety.
My books on the Tea Party are devoted to exploring the failure of Tea Party chapters to systematically organize at the local and national level. In short, I find that there is very little organization under the Tea Party banner going on throughout communities across the country.  Very few people actually turn out for rallies and planning meetings, compared to the large number of people who claim to be participating in these events according to national polling data. "

I was wondering what happened to the Tea Party. It seemed that once Occupy Wall Street started, the Tea Party practically disappeared.  Both OWS and the Tea Party agree that our government is screwing us over, though they disagree on what business is doing. Still, there seemed to be enough agreement on basic issues that these movements could have joined forces to a degree.

However, the Tea Party seems to not only avoid OWS, but almost left the field altogether.  I have two friends who worked peripherally with the Tea Party. It never seemed very strong nor coordinated to me.  And they seemed to ignore the problems of corporate power in favor of blaming the government on every problem.  OWS, meanwhile, blames corporate power and the government that enables that corporate power.

UPDATE:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/14/tea-party-co-founded-expresses-support-for-occupy-wall-street/

One of the co-founders of the Tea Party has decided they should join forces with OWS.