Bachmann, who formed the Tea Party caucus and is the chairman, is not a freshman nor is Steve King. You seem to think that only freshman are Tea Party congressmen. Not so. All 66 of its members are members of the Republican Party. Three of them are part of the Republican leadership. Thomas E. Price serves as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, making him the seventh ranking Republican in the House, John R. Carter is the Secretary of the House Republican Conference, ranking him the ninth ranking Republican, and Pete Sessions is the number six Republican as the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Steve King used to be the ranking member on the Immigration subcommittee, but he was passed over in favor of Elton Gallegly when the GOP took over. On the Senate side, Jim Demint and David Vitter have been excluded from leadership positions.
The implication of the post I replied to was that it was the Tea Party freshmen getting elected who helped get the GOP the majority back and that they’ve been excluded from the leadership. I read the remark as applying to freshmen. As for Tea Party leadership in the House, no one is more Tea Party than Paul Ryan and he’s chairman of the House Budget Committee. And one hell of a good one.