Yes, but you have to work with what you are given. The Tea Party has been kicking the RNC elites in the rear at just about every turn. You will have the "party" candidate and then the "tea party" candidate. The Tea party has been ousting the party candidate at just about every turn. As it stands, they have to work with the party that most reflects their ideals. If the movement strikes out on it's own, I see them going the way of the IAP party, Ross Perot, and a host of others under the title of "also ran."
I have no problem with the Tea Party working in hand with the GOP Old Guard. I'd just really prefer those hands to be around the metaphorical throats of all of the GOP statist pork-loving huge-government liberty-hating types. The informal structure prevents a coup within the Tea Party. So the GOP Old Guard have to try to embrace the Tea Party and 'direct' it in the proper current GOP direction (pork, police state, massive entitlement spending, etc). With a hundred separate groups, that's a hundred different groups you have to co-opt. That's the job of Beck, Palin and other GOP party hacks. Co-opt as many groups as possible with BS, and maintain as much of the status quo as possible.
The nice thing is that the GOP old guard are fat, dumb and happy. They're used to working at the top of the food chain. Tea Party is largely working at the local level, which is exactly where they should be. The other "third parties" were stupid. They only try running for the major offices. Screw that. Take over the LOWEST offices, work your way up the food chain, removing the old rot and completely replacing it as you claw your way up.
The best part is they don't even have to win. Just scare the RNC into doing their job. Now, of course, the real goal of the Tea Party should be to clear house at the RNC.
If that remotely succeeds, there will be a parallel movement in the DNC to do roughly the same thing. Respectfully, I will decline to discuss that here.