So yeah. I think it's pretty clear this is a government shutdown solution.
Boehner needs to keep the government open, or it'll be a disaster for the GOP presidential candidates. The professional politicians will be forced to take positions on an issue with no good answers. Meanwhile the crazies will happily align against PP and do even better in the primaries. Trump will probably do both at the same time.
However, there's a genuine threat to Boehner from the right wing if he tries to push the spending bill through. Normally he'd defuse that by allowing a brief shutdown, but the political cost to the party would be too great this time. But if Boehner needs Democrats both for the CR and to keep his job afterwards, they have twice as much leverage and can try to force even more concessions.
This removes that pressure on both sides. If Boehner is already quitting, there's neither pressure for the right wing to threaten his job nor pressure from the Democrats in return for saving it.
As always, while crazy at first glance, this is probably the strategy that minimizes compromise from the GOP position while still accomplishing required governmental tasks.
Good night, sweet orange prince.
