and it is right there behind me, the u.s. capitol. and 48 days now until the november congressional elections, which is shaping up to be a lively and crackling political showdown. last night, tea party candidates scored huge wins in several states, upending the predictions, and this morning, the democrats are marshaling forces. and on the republican side, karl rove is expressing surprise. jon charl karl has been running down results for us and is here tonight. good evening, jon. >> reporter: diane, the republican leadership is just stunned by what happened last night in delaware, and now they are scrambling to get control of a movement that seems to be taking over their party. >> you betcha. >> reporter: republican leaders had called her a fraud, a liar and unelectable. but now they have to call christine o'donnell republican nominee for senate. >> i didn't count on the establishment to win the primary. i'm not counting on them to win the general. i'm counting on the voters of delaware. >> reporter: privately, republican leaders say o'donnell's victory means they can't win in delaware and probably can't win control of the senate either. but the only senator who supported o'donnell says his party's leadership had it coming. >> i've been in the majority with republicans who didn't have principles and we embarrassed ourselves and lost credibility in front of the country. frankly, i'm at a point where i'd rather lose fighting for the right cause than win fighting for the wrong cause. >> reporter: now, party leaders are trying to make nice. chairman michael steele endorsed her, and so did the senate republican leadership. but republican guru karl rove continued to attack o'donnell even after she won. >> why did she mislead voters about her college education? how come it took nearly two decades to pay her college bills so she could get her college degree? how did she make a living? >> reporter: on abc's "top line," the head of the group tea party express shot back. >> karl should stay out of it. these seats don't belong to the republican party or to these states, the state parties. they belong to the people. >> reporter: the tea party movement has now swept aside gop establishment candidates in seven states. democrats believe this has produced outside the mainstream republican nominees who will be easier to beat in november. maybe -- but don't count on it. >> if the democrats think that the tea party folks are mad at republicans, just wait until they see what happens when november 2nd comes around, and they get a shot at the democratic incumbents. >> reporter: last night, gop leaders told us they wouldn't spend a dime to help o'donnell, because they didn't think she could win. but today, diane, the national republican senatorial committee sent a peace offering to o'donnell, in the form of a $42,000 check to her campaign. >> i want to get this straight, jon, because o'donnell is another sarah palin-endorsed candidate, big-time, and karl rove is doing battle now with sarah palin over this? >> reporter: there you go. palin versus rove. get your tickets. >> all right, well, let's turn now to george stephanopoulos, who is standing by in new york. so, george, how about it? tea party getting ready to go national? what are you seeing out there? >> reporter: well, they may. and democrats began the day kind of excited, because they think o'donnell is going to be easy to beat in delaware. but what settled in over the day is how deep and strong this wave is. right now, the number of people who are going to vote in november who support the tea party is growing. take a look at the numbers. 44% of likely voters have a favorable opinion of the tea party. nearly a quarter of likely voters, more than a quarter, have a strongly favorable opinion of the tea party. and take a closer look at what they believe. 92% believe that democrats in congress don't deserve re-election. 96%, almost impossible to get numbers that high, disapprove of the job the president is doing. so, going back to what senator cornyn said, these voters may not like republicans, but they hate the democrats. >> so, 48 days now for the democrats to try to match passion for passion. what's the strategy? >> reporter: well, you saw the president come out today and try and rile up democrats again on this whole issue of tax cuts for the wealthy and the republicans insisting on those and blocking tax cuts for the middle class. in one sense, they're going to - over issues like tha demcratgain but then they're also hoping, in some of these local races, like delaware, with christine o'donnell, like nevada with sharron angle, that they can portray these candidates as outside of the mainstream and win the election on the ground. >> well, we will all be watching all across this country, as we say. it begins. 48 days to go. thanks to you both. and another headline from washington today. the topic was the modern era of sex danger and sex trafficking in america. fueled by giant internet shopping sites like craigslist. finally, a craigslist executive was summoned to answer for the charges of creating an invitation to trafficking. here's pierre thomas. >> reporter: today, for the first time since craigslist censored its adult services, an executive from the company had to answer for its role in an epidemic of prostitution. some of it involving children. >> craigslist, we feel, has been one of the success stories in the critical fight against trafficking and child exploitation. >> reporter: craigslist's story? it's actually been figh online prostitution, evengh graphic ads had been appear on its pages and even though it had made more than $30 million from adult services lasto. alone. >> we have never been, never been a friendly place for criminal activity. >> reporter: some members of congress appeared skeptical. >> no amount of money is going to cause craigslist to reinstitute, in another name, this kind of site? >> i can't answer that directly, because i'm not directly involved in the decision-maki cp lasolved in the decision-maki cp >> yes. what i'm saying is, we do not have any intention to bring that category back. >> reporter: even though craigslist supposedly shut down its adult services site, today, we still found some racy postings that some might consider close to prostitution. take this one for, quote, he ways,erin she calls herself, quote, a sexf i think you get the picture. today, members of congress were told that online services like craigslist have partially fueled child prostitution. helping make it far more pervasive than many americans realize. >> offered me $500 and, i don't know, i couldn't stop crying. >> reporter: an estimated 100,000 children now forced into prostitution. average age? only 13. the dilemma tonight, how to stop these crimes from migrating to other sites. pierre thomas, abc news, washington. and, up next, the countdown overseas to a battle that could determine the outcome of the nine-year war in afghanistan. in december 2001, right after 9/11, american troops took the taliban stronghold of kandahar and signaled triumph. but tonight, they are preparing, because they have to try to do it again. we want to bring in martha raddatz, who is just back from afghanistan. martha, what are we expecting to happen now in the days ahead? >> reporter: i think you will see massive and sustained combat, but they're really trying to tamp down expectations. as you know, i was with the commander over there, david petraeus, and he kept saying, we don't want to build expectations for anything in afghanistan. but the reality is, this is a key battle in kandahar. they really have to be successful there. >> so expect it to be a long, slow, steady march? >> reporter: i think somewhat long and slow, and yet, as you know, they have to show success quickly. so, that's the hard part here. it's still a counterinsurgency campaign. that takes a long time. but they need short-term gains there. >> so, let me ask you, someone who just came back. we hear all these mixed views of whether the new strategy, the counterinsurgency is succeeding or not. tell us what you saw. >> reporter: well, i think there's real concern, diane. i sensed it with general petraeus, they're concerned about certain parts of afghanistan, certainly kandahar. all of those surge troops are now in place. 30,000 troops. they have to show some progress, as you know. he said it's like watching paint dry sometimes. but in the coming weeks, you'll see some real strong combat. >> all right, martha raddatz, just back from afghanistan tonight, thank you. and we have a note now about the ongoing investigation into the mismarked graves at arlington national cemetery. the army today acknowledged that two people were buried in the wrong graves. those graves were exhumed last month after a worried army widow called when she heard about the reports of the mixups. these mistakes have been fixed, but the investigation continues. and, in connecticut, another wrenching day in court, in the home invasion case where a doctor lived through a brutal attack, but his wife and two daughters did not. his wife had tried to signal to someone else that she was a hostage, and in danger. the 911 tapes are now telling the next part of that story, and here's andrea canning. >> reporter: after three long years, dr. william petit finally came face to face this week with stephen hayes, one of the two men accused of killing his wife and two daughters in a brutal 2007 home invasion. >> mostly focused on the questions that i was being asked. just try to do the best i could for my family. >> reporter: in court, petit endured the 911 call made by a teller in this bank where his wife jennifer, seen here on the surveillance video, was taken by her attackers. >> we have a lady who is in our bank right now who says that her husband and children are being held at their house. the people are in a car outside the bank. she is getting $15,000 to bring out to them. if the police are told they will kill the children and the husband. they have their faces covered. she is petrified. they told her they wouldn't hurt anybody if she got back there with the money. she believes them. i think she's walking out now. >> reporter: she walked into the ultimate nightmare. hayes and his accomplice took her home where she was sexually assaulted. her two children were tied to their beds. her husband was tied to a pole in the basement. dr. petit managed to escape by untying himself and running to his neighbor's. so, why did it take 33 minutes for the police to arrive to the home, and why didn't they attempt to enter? the police said in court today they followed standard hostage procedure, by establishing a perimeter around the house, rather than entering. they captured them a short time later, after the suspects tried to break through a road block. but not before they had set fire to the house and killed the family. now, as the trial enters its fourth day, the jury continues to hear testimony that will determine whether the two suspects receive the death penalty. andrea canning, abc news, new haich, haven, connecticut. and still ahead on "world news," new research about what constitutes the american family. how it's been changing, how it compares to yours. also, problems with a popular diet pill. what do they do to your body? and will anything work? and, the climber facing so many challenges, scaling 1,000-foot cliff, teaching us how to climb the mountains in our lives. the american heart. ♪ [ man ] if it was simply about money, every bank loan would be a guarantee of success. at ge capital, loaning money is the start of the relationship, not the end. i work with polaris every day. at ge capital, we succeed only when they do. whoo! awesome! yes! we've got to get you out of the office more often. ♪ my turn to drive. ♪ [ male announcer ] we asked zyrtec® users what they love about their allergy relief, and what it lets them do. the thing i love most about zyrtec® is that it allows me to be outside. 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