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Shutdown showdown widened GOP-Tea Party rift

By Laurie Kellman
Published October 19, 2013 8:03am ET
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Shutdown showdown widened GOP-Tea Party rift
In this Oct. 16, 2013, photo, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, left, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, walk to the Senate floor to vote on a bill to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government on Capitol Hill in Washington. The budget-debt brawl has widened the rift between the Grand Old Party and tea party lawmakers who are upset that House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell agreed to the plan to reopen government without extracting any limits on President Barack Obama's health care law.(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci) | Evan Vucci

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republicans’ clear defeat in the budget-debt brawl has widened the rift between the Grand Old Party and the blossoming tea party movement that helped revive it.

Implored by House Speaker John Boehner to unite and “fight another day” against President Barack Obama and Democrats, Republicans instead intensified attacks on one another, an ominous sign in advance of more difficult policy fights and the 2014 midterm elections.

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