Rope-a-dope?

This afternoon, President Obama made a brief statement to the press wherein he expressed optimism that a deal on the so-called "fiscal cliff" was being finalized.  Republicans reacted badly to this.

So badly, in fact, that we're now told the House will not vote on the deal at all tonight. This is interesting because, in a sane world, this would be exactly what the Democrats should want to have happen.  Once the artificial imperative of the fiscal cliff apocalypse has gone the way of the Maya, the new discussion is about passing what will certainly be a massive and massively popular "Obama tax cut" for working and middle class Americans. 

Surely the Republicans aren't throwing Obama into that briar patch unless they're certain he won't take advantage.  They're pretty stupid but I'm not sure they're that stupid.