What a fiasco for the CPAC name. They have been co-opted, and are a fore runner for co-opting the Tea Party. A shame.
I think you are on to something. The same political dynamics at work with CPAC will move into the Tea Party. I have this conspiratorial inkling that the Left is working out a formula that will be applied to the Tea Party. What I can see is that a Trojan Horse moves into the organization and springs its trap—or political bomb—and that disrupts the organization enough to destroy it.
If the Left can disrupt the Tea Party before the 2012 elections, if would be a victory for them.