McConnell and the 4 hold-out conservatives are engaged in a little bit of kabuki theatre. McConnell knows what they want and that he'll have to give it to them — but only after they get to put on a little show of fake resistance so that their tea party base thinks they stood up to McConnell and won something. Other holdouts will come on board after similar, pre-arranged dumbshows. To mix metaphors, McConnell is playing rope-a-dope while winking at Cruz et al.