Several GOP lawmakers seem to have blown off House Judiciary committee votes on the Patriot Act in favor of toasting Tea Partiers at Michelle Bachmann’s rally against health care reform on Capitol Hill yesterday.

Reps. Steve King of Iowa, Trent Franks of Arizona, Randy Forbes of Virginia, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Louie Gohmert and Ted Poe of Texas all showed up at the Tea Party — and all missed Patriot Act votes that took place at about the same time. Some of the votes on Republican-sponsored amendments to the reauthorization of the Patriot Act were close enough that they might have passed had more GOPers bothered to show up.

TPMmuckraker has the story.

Details are sketchy, but all three major cable networks are reporting a shooting at an office in Orlando. The suspected shooter is apparently still on the loose, and around eight people have reportedly already been shot.

Yesterday TPMDC’s Christina Bellantoni witnessed the arrests of 10 people in and around Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Capitol Hill Tea Party. We’ve got video of the arrests here.

Today, Capitol Police tell TPMDC that 12 arrests were made — but that none of the people arrested were Tea Partiers. Turns out they were anti-abortion activists. TPMDC’s Evan McMorris-Santoro has the story.