Stephen Spruiell, who is on the scene (but lacks internet access at the moment), reports that Rep. Jeff Flake told him, after leaving the closed-door meeting of the Republican conference this morning: “If you had listened to the debate in there you would have thought it was 5-1 against opening them up. But in the end it failed by a thin margin. So I think it shows that people privately feel differently than they are willing to express publicly.” Flake clearly hopes the same dynamic will hold tomorrow when members vote for a new majority leader.

Also, Shadegg told Spruiell of his sitting next to Boehner during the SOTU last night, “I wouldn’t read too much into that.” He says it was a coincidence.