"I suppose the main, unifying item of the Tea Party agenda, is taxes."

As per Lisa Lerer's article which has been verified by JTS, Republicans are responsible for TARP and TARP gave rise to the Tea Party:

"McConnell, Boehner, Cantor and Ryan all voted in October 2008 for the program, which stoked the rise of the Tea Party movement."

So is the tea party Anti-Republican?

Democrats claim that TARP was bad so they must be in agreement with the Tea Party.

Evidently the Tea Party is against having their taxes spent on bullshit like bailing out banks while the national deficit rises, the government's "fiscal irresponsibility"

If you remember it was Rick Santelli on CNBC, owned by GE, that ranted against TARP and called for a Tea Party in Chicago.