On Friday, Boehner spokesman Don Seymour issued a finger-wagging response to the Washington Post report.

“This emerging White House strategy is consistent with recent administration threats to veto any spending bill unless Congress agrees to the president’s demand for a broader budget deal with higher taxes and higher spending – the type of explicit threat to shut down the government rarely seen in Washington,” Seymour said.

A leadership source said that Boehner had an inkling that the White House would pursue this strategy given prior veto threats.

“The White House signaled in June they may go down this path when they issued those two SAPs threatening to veto our VA/milcon and one other appropriations bill unless Congress agreed to the president’s demand for a broader budget deal with higher taxes and higher spending,” the source explained to The Hill.

Griffin was apoplectic Friday upon learning of the new White House strategy, saying the threat came “completely out of left-field literally and figuratively.”