Yes, well SOTC, we both know of a former key member of show prep who no longer does it, and that person would have certainly caught this. The better example would be that the actual TP backed candidate almost beat Jones, a 22 year incumbent, to make Rush' point - or that Tillis was moved way right by Brannon in order to win, as a show of TP strength at least philosophically.
As to your other point, there's a misguided effort on the part of some, Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter, somewhat Rush and others - to now define TP as simply a pro deport them all now organization - and to characterize anyone who is NOT deport them all now as "pro amnesty." That's absurd of course.
That's not the case. Rural Tea Party groups dependent on migrant workers are not this way at all. Rush knows, and has stated many times on air, that mass deportation is simply not possible. Why he then byes into the Ingraham/coulter line of thinking on this is just beyond me. He needs that other filter….