Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) – a member of the House Tea Party Caucus – placed the blame for the loss in the recent payroll tax cut extension battle squarely on the shoulders of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), according to The Hill.

“What we have here is a failure to communicate,” Gohmert said Monday on Fox News. “If the message had been properly communicated to the Senate that we were not going to go along with a two month extension, then the Senate would not have voted 89 votes for that extension.”

The Senate voted with overwhelming bipartisan support last week to pass a two month extension of the tax cut to give Republicans and Democrats additional time to negotiate a 12 month deal.

House Republicans, led by a group of freshmen with strong tea party support, initially voted to defeat the Senate plan, and instead appointed an eight member payroll tax conference committee to hammer out a one year compromise before a New Year’s Day deadline.

However, after tremendous pressure from establishment conservatives like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), The Wall Street Journal editorial board, former Bush adviser Karl Rove, and finally a public statement from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Speaker Boehner relented and the two month option passed by unanimous consent on Friday.

The Senate “had the word that, according to them, that they’d been told we’ll go along with a two month extension,” Gohmert said.