Confound it!

So, I was all set to use tomorrow's vote on defense authorization/DADT repeap/DREAM act (too many acronyms!) as a nice test case for my Republican Laffer curve hypothesis, which basically states that the GOP is trying to extract too much party discipline from its caucus and will eventually get diminishing returns, when a certain singer with an unfortunate penchant for perpetrating indignities upon animal corpses real and fake had to go and contaminate my data. Now, if Sens. Snowe and Collins, plus-or-minus Scott Brown, make the sensible vote in favor of the mildly-liberal policies, it will support only on of the two hypotheses:
1. The Republican Party discipline machine has become so ruthless that it is now impossible to conform adequately to the demands of primary voters and be elected in a state like Maine or Massachusetts, and these Senators are aware of this; or
2. Lady Gaga is the only force on earth that can make Republicans break a filibuster.
On the one hand, the political scientist in me much prefers the former, and since it was my idea I was looking forward to having a nice test case. On the other hand, if the latter, I suppose it's good information to have, and... may she use the power for good? In either event, though, my data have been confounded! (Though, of course, if these "moderate" Republicans continue to vote to please their Tea Party overlords, then we establish that a) Republican discipline knows no limits, and b) even Lady Gaga cannot stop the Tea Party. I'm not a fan of hers, but hell, I'd even root for the Yankees over the Tea Party.)