Where's That Clean Bill?

The true believers at TPM had me leaning with them hoping that in the end a clean debt ceiling bill would come out of all this. But I don't see how it can if the precedurals take so long. Unless.
Unless, maybe, um, somebody in the Senate puts up a companion bill with Reid's, triggered to follow his for a vote in the House if his should fail. Can they do that?
Then, if the Senate rejects whatever the House may, emphasis MAY, pass today, the House rejects Reid's bill, there's one more fallback. Clean. No cuts, no revenues, no two-step, election polluting process.
Thing is, I doubt the House would pass that either.
And that puts O exactly where I and many Democrats including Big Dog believed we'd ultimately be, with the 14th Amendment and fuck the courts.
Invoke it, pay the bills, there.
Let the R's get bogged down arguing some obscure issues the media can't keep afloat for more than a 10-second sound bite and in the meantime there's this and this and this missing blond girl and Rupert and earthquake.
So, now that I've worked it all out in my head I see at last it's all about the news cycle.