WASHINGTON (AP) — Stunt or principled stand, Sen. Ted Cruz's talkathon against Obamacare scored 21 hours of cable television time to describe the president's signature law in the most conservative terms. By noon Wednesday when the Texas freshman finally sat down, tea party groups supporting him were in full fundraising mode.

"Please make the most generous emergency contribution you possibly can to the Tea Party Patriots right away," the group's mass email urged in the final minutes of Cruz's marathon speech. "Ted Cruz is only one man, but right now he speaks for all of us."

Whether he spoke for other Republicans, positioned the party to gain seats in next year's election or just burnished his own political ambitions was the subject of bitter, behind-the-scenes debate.