House Speaker John Boehner once again finds himself caught in the middle of a Capitol brawl between Tea Party Republicans and his Democratic counterparts, as he tries to navigate the choppy political waters and prevent a government shutdown at the end of the month.

Tea Party-aligned members of Boehner’s caucus are flexing their muscle and pressuring him to allow a vote on an anti-ObamaCare measure as part of ongoing budget talks. They want the vote tied directly to the budget measure, and rejected a compromise plan earlier this week — leaving unclear how Congress might pass a short-term spending bill before funding runs out on Sept. 30.

Boehner, after meeting with bipartisan congressional leaders on Thursday morning, offered no hint of what the next step might be. In the face of heated intra-party squabbling — and even nastier accusations flying between Republican and Democrats — he projected cool.

“There’s all this speculation about these deadlines that are coming up. I’m well aware of the deadlines. So are my colleagues,” he said. “And so we’re working with our colleagues to work our way through these issues. I think there’s a way to get there. … There are a million options that are being discussed by a lot of people.”

But Boehner realizes that the party’s public image going into the 2014 elections could be at stake, with Democrats eager to pin the blame on them if Congress can’t reach a budget deal and there’s a partial shutdown. Lawmakers came within minutes of a shutdown during a budget fight in 2011, and have continued to pass a series of short-term measures — leaving the prospect of a shutdown perpetually over the horizon.

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