The Republican Party's tea-party adherents believe they made an important point by setting in motion the events that led to this month's government shutdown, ill-fated though that shutdown might have been.

The question they and the rest of their party now are left to ponder is this: Was the price paid worth the point made? That question, in fact, now lies at the heart of what figures to be a full-fledged struggle over the soul of the party, and over who really leads it.

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