I seem to remember the “Tea Parties” as being tax protests, and anti government bailout protests. At some point the liberals decided it was a threat since there were people speaking out against “the one” and began to frame it as a bunch of right wing extremist kooks trying to organize a new political party(even though the protests were just as much against Repubs). The right wingers were just as nervous, and decided they needed to try to take credit for the new “Tea Party” out of fear the the Republican party would be pushed out by the new movement.

Basically a simple tax protest was spun into some huge new movement that the left could attack, and the right tried to take credit for.