They know that. That is why they are going out of their way to "establish" Tea Party leaders anyway [note Juan Williams on Fox calling Palin the "leader" of the Tea Party, despite her prior rejection of any such interest.]
It is an Alinsky "Rules For Radicals" tactic: They need to establish Tea Party leader(s) in the public mind, even if they do not exist, so they can undermine the Tea Party by destroying the reputation of these specific people.
Hey you get it. Alinsky does not work without a figurehed to Deamonize. It also does not work too well once they are in power. Hard to say America Sucks when they are in charge.
Kinda like a while back when they kept saying Rush was the de facto leader of the GOP.