"I gave a speech at a few Tea Parties. I never joined a group.”

The Wisconsin Republican blamed national and local Tea Party groups for holding the GOP hostage. “My guess is that the Tea Party groups have always been separate from the Tea Party movement.”

Johnson burst onto the national scene after given a number of fiery speeches at Tea Party rallies before he was even a candidate, and told a reporter that he “did kind of spring out of the Tea Party.”

At the Republican Leadership Conference however, Johnson downplayed his involvement with the movement, saying, “I gave a speech at a few Tea Parties. I never joined a group.”

“I value the membership of the Tea Party movement. I am right there with them ideologically, I mean, ‘Taxed Enough Already.’ But the groups don’t necessarily represent all of the individuals in the movement. I think the individuals are now realizing they may have been led astray by an individual group or two and they really do understand that they have to win elections,” he said, adding, “My guess is the Tea Party grassroots are maybe a little more flexible.”