What I believe is this, and it’s just a theory: I think the Dems tried to pull this off, and I think they tried to include some GOP members. As bad and incompetent as the GOP is, I don’t think the GOP ever went along with this. Yes, I know the headline said the parties were meeting on this, but when you read the original quotes from the GOP folks, it doesn’t appear they were ever for it. Meeting on a subject is not the same thing as agreeing on it necessarily.
The headline said one thing, but the article said the other. Now, I think the Dems are embarrassed, and trying to walk it back. I think the Politico was trying to establish discord on the right. And in this case, I think even the flacid tepid and sometimes corrupt GOP was actually correct. Am I 100% sure? Nope, and it bears watching, but that’s how I read this particular situation.
On the off-chance that both the GOP leadership's collective brain cells banged together and created synapse, I hope you are right.
The cynic in me (which, by the way, is now 99 44/100 percent pure, just like the soap) still thinks that the GOP-E would be just fine with a carve out, and let the cocktail parties begin. We know the Democrats could care less what the underclass thinks of them, so it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they try to ram a carveout through Congress.
Your point about Pollutico, however, is well taken.