could cost this once-rising gop star a shot at a u.s. senate seat. i ve been hearing about the tea parties for a while. reporter: meek marco ruble be, he s challenging crist for the senate see and a darling of the tea party movement. he s turned the hug into a fund-raising gift that keeps on giving. would you give president obama a hug? why? depending. why would i hug someone i don t know? reporter: well, charlie crist has gotten himself in a lot of trouble for hugging president obama. ultimately, you know, that gets a lot of attention. but what he really got in trouble for was for supporting a plan that is helping to bankrupt this country. what i find at events like this is a growing number of americans who have never been involved in politics before, i bet that s a lot of you. reporter: rubio takes his message of smaller government and lower taxes to tea party rallies. it s a great awakening. stop the spending on unnecessary things. reporter: and his youtube page
activists venting their anger at washington. he has closed the gap and might win the primary. would you be the first tea party senator? i m running as a republican. reporter: a political party. it s not a political party. reporter: crist by contrast is no tea party activist. have you sat down with a tea party and talked to them? no. reporter: not once? no, i d be happy to. reporter: for the tea party express there s anner. the republicans embracing massive tax-and-spend policies, that s what the gop is about, and that s what charlie crist did. reporter: republicans and even former democrats are ready to take down some of the biggest names in politics from democratic majority senator harry reid to republican john mccain. but democrats say all that infighting between crist and rubio actually presents an
charges. three people died during one of his sweat lodge ceremonies last year. his lawyer calls it a terrible accident. brad brian is scheduled to be larry king s guest tonight. it s a prime-time exclusive right here on cnn, larry king, 9:00 p.m. eastern, only here on cnn. the tea party nation is kicking off its first national convention. hundreds of leaders are now starting to gather at opriland hotel in nashville, tennessee, tickets to the banquette featuring sarah palin are still available and the darling of the tea partiers is in a fight for his political life. our jim acosta has all of it for you. we know that it s important that we pass a stimulus package. reporter: for republican florida governor charlie crist it s the hug that just won t let go. his embrace of the president and the stimulus program at this town hall meeting last year
the first repairs of the recalled cars as the company s problems widen today. it s 11:00 in nashville where the fractious group that make up the tea party movement gather for a convention today. and it is noon in boston, where scott brown s election to the senate was certified today. he ll be sworn in five hours from now. so, why don t we get started, shall we? and we start with toyota. toyota s troubles just keep coming. in addition to the massive recall, the company faces new problems with its popular prius hybrid. the transportation department announced just today it has opened an investigation into brake problems on the 2010 prius. toyota blames a software problem, but has not issued a recall. and dealerships around the country are racing to make repairs on millions of toyotas that were recalled because of sticky gas pedals. the troubles just keep on coming, as we ve been saying for toyota and also for toyota owners. first, it was sticky gas pedals, now it s the brakes on
number of seats in the house of representatives. you remember the electoral votes, how important those have been in the last few elections? it also affects the number of electoral votes. so actually taking the time to fill it out, whether or not you have to pay the $5,000 fine, it s definitely worth it. we re actually in a state that s probably because of the census, we re going to gain representation. that s right. here in georgia because of the number of people and other states are going to lose it. exactly. it s all about representation. yes, it is. s some people say it goes all the way back to the bible. did you know that? i did not know that. we ll have to do some fact checking on that too. thanks. thanks for that. all right, thank you. always good to see you. so fill out those census forms. in our next hour, the stimulus desk and census. our josh levs takes a look at how much of your money is paying for the census and exactly where that money is going. time t