He could cut a deal with Nancy Pelosi and get some Democratic votes. That might cost the GOP some committee chairmanships as the Democrats won't do it for nothing. In effect we would have a coalition government in the House between establishment Republicans and those Democrats willing to vote with Boener.
The could still work with a Republican speaker candidate other than Boener.
The upside would be we would have a speaker to do the day-to-day affairs the speaker does. A further upside would be that the Republican extremists would be the ones dealt out of power. The downside for us is that the speaker would still be a Republican, but that goes without saying. The downside for the GOP specifically is, as Dr. Maddow put it. "civil war" within the Republican party. That would bring about another set of ups and downs. The biggest down would be that the well-financed extremists in the GOP would be strong enough to maintain a period of instability in American politics, but we may be headed for a period of instability even without the Ted Cruz faction of the GOP making mischief.
That goes way beyond the scope of this thread.
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