The Hail Mary strategy proposed by Democrats late last week to end the government shutdown is predicated on one small miracle: moderate Republicans defying their leadership to bring a clean spending bill to the House floor.

But even if the strategy ultimately fails, which now seems likely, Democrats still see it as an opportunity to call out those supposed moderates -- the Peter Kings and Charlie Dents -- who have talked a big game about ending the shutdown, but failed to follow through when presented a procedural path to do it.

"This is a way to smoke out people who say they want to keep the government open right now," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), one of the plan's architects, told TPM in an interview Monday. "This is an opportunity for them to put their signatures where their mouths are."

The mythical moderate Republican caucus has disappeared every time the House has taken a vote that could derail the House GOP leadership's shutdown strategy. For Van Hollen and others, using a discharge petition to bring a clean bill to the floor is another chance for Democrats to apply the pressure to those members.

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"These Republican members, who say that they want to have a vote to keep the open government, will now have the opportunity to demonstrate it in deeds," Van Hollen told TPM, "not just words."

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