Other Our Country ads aggressively attacked Obama, sometimes using themes Palin’s running mate, Republican presidential candidate John McCain, had declared out of bounds. One reminded voters of “hateful sermons from Obama's pastor for over 20 years,” while footage played featuring former Obama pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright preaching the words “God damn America!”

Russo — who helped elect former Govs. George Deukmejian of California and George Pataki of New York, among other Republicans, and helped engineer the recall of Democratic California Gov. Gray Davis — said he was actually planning to shutter Our Country Deserves Better after the 2008 election, “but so many people were telling us that somebody had to stay active and do something. So we decided that we would do that, but we weren’t clear on exactly what we would do.”

When the tea party movement picked up steam, Russo said, it made sense for the PAC to join in. “We had a good running start,” he said.

Russo brought with him some of old tricks. The bus tour, for example, mirrored the cross-country “Stop Obama Tour” in which a bus emblazoned with pictures of McCain and Palin flanking the Our Country Deserves Better PAC logo, stopped at 30 pro-McCain/Palin rallies during the final two weeks of October 2008.

And then, as now, a substantial portion of the PAC’s spending goes through Russo Marsh and, to a lesser extent, through King Media.

The PAC paid Russo Marsh $135,000 in consulting fees and commissions, $400,000 for e-mail and Web newsletters and at least $650,000 to produce and place television advertisements. Though some of those sums reflect payments for e-mail address list rentals and television airtime that were passed along to list vendors and television stations, respectively, many of the blast e-mails and television ads served to drum up more attention and cash for the PAC, even as they also touted Republican candidates or attacked Democratic ones.

“Go to OurCountryPAC.org and help us defeat Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats,” one pre-tea party PAC ad instructed viewers. A more recent offering urged viewers to “Join the Tea Party Express as we send Bart Stupak packing for an early retirement. Log on to TeaPartyExpress.org as we fight to defeat Bart Stupak.”

Kelly Eustis, who was fired from his job as the Our Country Deserves Better’s political director in October, said the PAC — and particularly the Tea Party Express aspect of it — “is keeping the firm afloat.” Eustis, who started his own PAC and also has been retained to do fundraising consulting for rival tea party groups, said that while he was at Our Country Deserves Better, his colleagues regarded the tea party as “a brand name. We stole the brand name to make money.”

And he charged Russo and Wierzbicki with “basically hijacking the movement for their personal and business gains without regard for real tea party activists.”

Russo countered “we’re hardly making any money at all. I’m a cause-oriented person. This is not a lucrative business proposition. It’s a cause for me. I believe in what I’m doing.”

As for the bus tours, Russo said “they work for us. It’s a great vehicle to go to a lot of places and get a lot of people involved and engaged. I am proud of what we do. Who else goes out there and motivates people and insinuates involvement and activity and actually is making a difference in what is going on?”