The Democrats said Wednesday morning that the failed vote is a sign that Republican leaders aren’t prepared to handle the practical difficulties of governing.

An unlikely alliance of Republicans and Democrats -- joined by a concern for individual liberties -- brought the bill down. It mustered majority support in the 277-148 vote, but fell seven short of the two-thirds needed to pass.

The Patriot Act, a Bush Administration legacy, has typically been more strongly supported by Republicans than Democrats.

The surveillance sections of the Patriot Act would have maintained the government's authority to move wiretaps around on targets without getting multiple court orders, would permit the FBI to apply for special authority to get access to “any tangible item” in foreign intelligence, international terrorism and certain other intelligence cases.

The bill also would have allowed surveillance of “lone wolf” criminals who aren’t working with terrorist groups. The FBI's authority to conduct some kinds of surveillance and get business records expires at the end of February.

Supporters say the three measures are vital to preventing another terrorist attack, adding that the defeat of the House plan to extend the deadline until the end of the year threatens to throw the law enforcement community into disarray.

Critics say they infringe on civil liberties.

While the legislation Tuesday was expected to pass, political observers say it shouldn’t come as a surprise that an issue like the Patriot Act was able to unite libertarian-leaning Tea Party folks and liberals.

Several new GOP lawmakers from the Tea Party wing are suspicious of federal power and what they call big government invasions of individual privacy. They were joined by other Republicans as well as House Democrats to torpedo the extension.

A GOP aide blamed the situation on new lawmakers who don't understand the Patriot Act and on Tea Party favorites who reject broad federal powers.

GOP leaders said the Democrats who voted for the measure's defeat, voted against the wishes of President Obama, who favors an extension until late 2013.

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who led his party to a historic triumph in the mid-term elections, said his control of the House is new.

“We’ve been in the majority four weeks,” Boehner told reporters Wednesday morning. “We’re not going to be perfect every day. If the Democrats who voted for these same provisions last year would’ve voted for them this year it would’ve passed. But we’re going to get these extensions of the Patriot Act enacted because it’s important to the safety and security of the American people.”

The Senate will try to push forward its version of the plan next week. And House Republicans are expected to vote on the extensions again on the legislation under regular procedures that would require only a simple majority.

The question for House GOP leaders -- as well as the Obama White House -- is what the vote means on future matters, such as the upcoming push to raise the debt ceiling.

House Republicans are pointing fingers at one another the day after a vote on the Patriot Act failed on their watch, and they’re already bracing for another embarrassing floor vote Wednesday.

GOP aides predict that the House will fail to pass a bill Wednesday that would retrieve money already paid to the United Nations — a rejection which would bring their legislative losses to three bills this week. The U.N. bill would return $179 million that was paid into the U.N. tax equalization fund.