“This is great news for us,” says Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The DCCC has launched a Web site to highlight divisions in the GOP primaries…

Few House races are stirring more tea-party fervor than the sprawling 5th District in southern Virginia, where seven Republican candidates are battling for the right to take on freshman Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello.

Five of the Republicans claim allegiance to the tea-party mantle: two transplanted real-estate moguls, a pilot, a teacher and an Internet entrepreneur.

“It’s a train wreck, no doubt about it,” says Mark Lloyd, founder of the Lynchburg Tea Party and a leading figure in the Virginia insurgency. “My proposal is we give everyone a tire iron and have them work it out in the parking lot.”