Tom Cole announced his support for passing the Middle Class Tax Cut Act, which preserves the Bush tax cuts for incomes under $250K. On the democratic side, this is seen as a sign of brains/compromise/something that promises a bipartisan solution.
Unfortunately, this isn't a complete solution: the Middle Class Tax Cut Act doesn't affect the debt ceiling. If the House does the unexpected and passes the tax cut, it will give 98% of tax payers the cut they want, and we can reasonably expect that the bulk of the democratic base will lose interest in the remaining issues. That will make it easier for the GOP to later use the debt ceiling as leverage, as Boehner has noted.
With the tax issue solved for virtually all tax payers, the amount of political damage caused by not raising the debt ceiling would be much higher than the damage caused by restoring the rest of the tax cuts. Obama could well receive the blame for a failure to reach an agreement as opposed to the GOP taking the blame if middle-class tax rates rise.
They say that Obama plays politics like a chess game. If that's so, he should realize that Tom Cole is offering him a pawn to set up a checkmate. If Obama takes the pawn, he'll be walking into a trap.