So what if they lost the Super Bowl -- a Rooney scored a big win in Washington yesterday.

Readers of this site know we've long followed US Rep. Tom Rooney of Florida (the nephew of Dan/first cousin of Art II). Yesterday the sophomore Republican led a winning effort -- joined by the odd coupling of tea party Republicans and the Obama administration -- to kill a $3 billion jet engine program. He authoried the amendment to kill the program, which was supported by House Majority Leader John Boehner; the GE/Rolls Royce plant that would have produced the fighter jet engines is in Boehner's Ohio district.

Here's Rooney's hometown Palm Peach Post on the vote last night:

Second-term House member Rooney called today's vote the biggest victory of his congressional career. He credited many GOP rookies with making the difference on a project the Bush and Obama administrations have unsuccessfully tried to eliminate for years. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen also have testified against the alternative engine.

"That alternate engine issue was kind of like part of the paint in this building. It just was always here," Rooney said. "The fact that we bucked the trend and got the freshmen to go along with us was really a big deal...The going-along-to-get-along times in Washington hopefully are over."

Photo: Tom Rooney in Steelers snuggie, 2009. Politico/Rooney's office photo.

(H/t Jim O'Toole)