.@gop House GOP in disarray. But is the Tea Party Caucus really behind it?#p2 #tcot

Yesterday's collapse of the House GOP's legislative agenda has the Beltway punditocracy examining the tea leaves.

WaPo:

House Republicans suffered an embarrassing setback Tuesday when they fell seven votes short of extending provisions of the Patriot Act, a vote that served as the first small uprising of the party's tea-party bloc.

MSNBC's First Read:

In a defeat last night for House Republican leaders, legislation to extend certain Patriot Act programs was unable to get the two-thirds vote needed for passage as 26 Republicans voted no, including seven freshmen who are associated with the Tea Party. Per NBC's Luke Russert, the vote -- 277 to 148 -- represented the first insurrection against the House GOP leadership by its freshman members since it was expected to pass easily.

But I'm going to ask for a second read here. Either we're too anxious to hammer the square peg of the vote count into the round hole of The Prevailing Tea Party Narrative^TM, or we may not all be working with the same definition of what constitutes the Tea Party, with respect to congressional voting blocs.

The only "official" count of the membership of the House Tea Party Caucus that exists is the list released in July of 2010 by its chair, Michele Bachmann (R-MN-06). That list, which has never been updated, shows 52 members, though only 50 of them are actually still Members of the House of Representatives. Former Reps. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI-02) and Jerry Moran (R-KS-01) are still as members. Moran, of course, was elected to the Senate and has joined the Senate Tea Party caucus. Hoekstra retired from the House and was defeated in his gubernatorial bid.

That makes it a bit difficult to determine whether or not "the Tea Party" was behind this "uprising" or "defiance." Of the 50 members on the official list, just eight voted against passage of the bill (or rather, the motion to suspend the rules in order to pass it): Reps. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD-01), Rob Bishop (R-UT-01), Paul Broun (R-GA-10), Tom Graves (R-GA-10), Kenny Marchant (R-TX-24), Tom McClintock (CA-04), Denny Rehberg (R-MT-AL) and Phil Roe (TN-01).

rest at http://www.congressmatters.com/storyonly/2011/2/9/125340/8061