[MRM]

It wasn't so much a conspiracy to raise and then derail an immigration bill as it was the typical political theater on a larger than usual scale. A bill takes a lot of work and prep to get it signed into law. It's an old trick to propose a law that you don't really want to go into effect and then let it die because you don't push it hard enough. You look good because you pushed the issue and you get to complain about a do-nothing Congress or politics as usual. No one sees the effort you didn't put into getting the bill passed.

That's what the strange bedfellows did here. It was in their interest to push the bill but not in their interest to push hard enough for it to go into law. Hence the Hustler analogy of looking like you were trying to sink the ball.