and his brethren understand that the Bush era tax cuts absolutely must expire if America is going to recover.
And perhaps, just perhaps, everything up to this point has been for appearance sake. A way to save face and evade any responsibility for the inevitable retaliation from their base if they voted for the taxes necessary to recover.
I know it's a stretch and this idea could me labeled a conspiracy theory from the conservative view point.
But wouldn't it be nicer if this was the case? Republicans would still be willing to have Democrats take the blame for raising taxes but at least it would mean they aren't the complete economic nihilists I think they are.
A bunch of wishful thinking.