The Democratic National Committee (DNC) likes Eric Ostermeier's study of the new House Tea Party Caucus posted on the University of Minnesota' SmartPolitics blog, which was blasted out to reporters Friday to underscore a few intuitive trends.

First, the 42-member (and growing?) House caucus led by Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann has a strong southern tilt: 21 members hail from the South, including 10 from Texas and four from Georgia. The most notable, of course, are Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who made a name for himself yelling "you lie!" at President Obama during a joint session of Congress, and Joe Barton of Texas, who made news in recent weeks for apologizing to BP for its rough treatment by Democrats in the wake of the Gulf oil spill disaster.

The balance of the membership comes from the Midwest and the West. New England, it appears, is a Tea Party wasteland. The caucus also represents red meat Republican districts that went GOP "by very comfortable margins" in the 2008 election cycle, Ostermeier found. Average margin of victory: 29.2 points. Overall, caucus members represent districts with Partisan Voting Index of + 14 for the GOP. That may explain why there has been no buy-in from either of Bachmann's two Minnesota GOP colleagues in the House, John Kline and Erik Paulsen.